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1. Embed this notice
   Bronwyn Harris (bronwyn@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:04:01 JST Bronwyn Harris

   Remember how I had two BRAND-NEW computers fail last week and finally decided reluctantly to go to a Mac?

   The dell I bought on Tuesday has had 13 blue screens of death and this is the final. It won’t restart.

   I’m going to take it to Best Buy to return but… how do I delete my info if I can’t restart it?

   • Embed this notice
     smellsofbikes (smellsofbikes@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:04:00 JST smellsofbikes

     in reply to

     @Bronwyn I'd talk to BB and ask if it's ok to bring it back without the mass storage card, and then take the card and smash it.

   • Embed this notice
     Phil in SF (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:04:00 JST Phil in SF

     in reply to

     • smellsofbikes

     @smellsofbikes @Bronwyn Unless you know that it's encrypted, this is the only way. Modern SSDs don't allow actual secure wiping, even if you can get the laptop rebooted. (That being said, your tax return is relatively useless on its own for getting into your accounts. Not completely, but the things it's useful for like refund fraud would be dead giveaways that the source was Best Buy.)

   • Embed this notice
     Bronwyn Harris (bronwyn@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:12:35 JST Bronwyn Harris

     in reply to

     • smellsofbikes
     • Phil in SF

     @smellsofbikes @kingrat i never encrypted it

   • Embed this notice
     Phil in SF (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:13:50 JST Phil in SF

     in reply to

     • smellsofbikes

     @Bronwyn @smellsofbikes Windows sometimes does it by default, which might be why you are getting the Bitlocker error if the drive is failing.

   • Embed this notice
     Bronwyn Harris (bronwyn@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:14:22 JST Bronwyn Harris

     in reply to

     • smellsofbikes
     • Phil in SF

     @kingrat @smellsofbikes FFS

   • Embed this notice
     Phil in SF (kingrat@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:18:16 JST Phil in SF

     in reply to

     @Bronwyn That's a good thing in your case. If it encrypted the drive, it would take CIA levels of work to get your information off it.

   • Embed this notice
     Bronwyn Harris (bronwyn@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 25-Jun-2024 03:35:51 JST Bronwyn Harris

     in reply to

     • Phil in SF

     @kingrat ok good. And also it’s almost unbelievable, the luck I have not had