My 1 TB hard drive stopped working, and I contacted a technician for help. He insisted on taking the drive with him instead of working on it at my house, even though I offered to let him use my laptop. While inspecting it in his car, he connected the drive to his laptop, opened R-Studio, and then checked Device Manager. I noticed one of the file names from the drive appeared in R-Studio.
Could he have already copied photos or folders during that brief inspection, or would copying a large amount of data normally take much longer? Is there any way to determine whether files were accessed or copied?
3 Answers
R-Studio is commonly used for diagnosing failed drives, scanning for partitions, checking whether files are readable, and recovering data. Seeing a file name in the program does not mean the file was copied. A technician may only have been examining the drive’s directory structure.
That said, it is technically possible to copy files quickly if the drive is readable and the technician specifically chooses a few files. There usually is no reliable way to prove afterward that someone viewed or copied files, so only give the drive to a business you trust. A full recovery from a damaged 1 TB drive could take much longer, especially if it has bad sectors.
A normal recovery process might involve removing the drive from its enclosure, connecting it directly, creating a sector-by-sector image, and then working from that image. The technician may also be checking whether the enclosure or its USB adapter failed rather than the disk itself.
A reputable repair shop should treat your files as confidential and avoid opening personal content unnecessarily. Still, if you are uncomfortable with this person, do not hand over the drive. Ask for a written privacy policy, use a different recovery company, or perform the work yourself only if you understand that repeated attempts can make a failing drive worse.
Your concern is understandable, but the technician’s behavior is not proof that he stole anything. Looking at the drive in R-Studio could have been a completely ordinary diagnostic step. Copying a few pictures might be quick, while copying everything would generally take much longer and could fail if the disk is damaged.
If the data is important, stop powering the drive on repeatedly. For a mechanically failing drive, professional recovery may be the safest option. If you recover the files, immediately make at least two backups stored in separate places.
The main issue is trust. Even though there may be no way to verify what happened, you can choose another technician and clearly ask them to create an image without browsing personal files.
That is what worries me—the drive was alone with him, so I cannot really know what he did. Is there a safe way to try recovering the files myself instead?