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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    If you have your original disks and/or keys, you can likely re-install the software necessary to get the computers back up and running. I would question whether it would be worth buying new licenses for the computers, as the value of a new Windows license likely exceeds the value of the computers, system software installed, on the used computer market.

    I have no way of commenting on what value, if any, existed in your personal files. It would seem odd to let a co-worker use a computer for a year if it had valuable personal files on its hard drive, let alone without backing up those files. For the computer you used, if the personal files had not been touched for three or more years, it would not seem that they had much value. If the computer was being used for personal purposes once put into use for the benefit of your employer, the question is raised of why (particularly for a manger of operations) that should be treated any differently than personal files saved on any other work computer.

    Before you can decide if it's worth trying to pursue this, you need to figure out a dollar figure for damages that you might be reasonably able to prove in court. Based on that figure, you would have to evaluate whether it's worth the trouble of trying to convince a court that your ex-employer acted improperly.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    12

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    There were no valuable personal files on the one I brought in for the co worker, only on the one that I was using, and most of what was important to me was music files.

    I guess it's the thanks you get for being nice. Like I said, this company was in financial trouble for years, which is the reason I lost my job, and the reason I decided to be nice and bring my own computer instead of costing them $400 for a new one of their own. I pretty much ran the company for the last 5 years since the owner died and was put in charge of making most of the decisions, and I felt this was in the company's best interest, much like the 2 pay cuts I took and the Christmas bonus that I gave back. No good deed goes unpunished.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    RTR/WDE
    Posts
    1,724

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    Not legal advice, but a really good PC technician could attempt to recover those files, even from a formatted disk. (I've done it more than once myself.) If there have been no hardware changes, the OS keys should still work. It might require a call to MS to get them activated, but more than likely not.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    No good deed goes unpunished. But losing the hard disk info on personal machines brought in to do company work is entirely within the realm of expected behavior of the management. There's just no guarantee that sensitive information doesn't persist even in the system areas of the disk. I tell you that you'd not even have gotten the hard drives back out of the facility if you brought them into my old company for exactly the reason BooRennie alludes to.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    12

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    a really good PC technician could attempt to recover those files
    Well, I tried putting the hard disk into another computer to see if any partitions were accessible and the computer says the hard drive is unformatted.

    I tell you that you'd not even have gotten the hard drives back out of the facility if you brought them into my old company
    I know what you mean from a legal standpoint, but you have to understand the background of this company. It was a small family run business and I got hired 20 years ago because I was friends with the owner. When he passed in 2009 his wife took over ownership and left the running of the business to me. In fact, she asked me to keep a backup of the company data off site in case of fire, so I have their data at home anyways and she knows it so erasing the hard drive was pointless and was done for punitive reasons only.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Posts
    19,901

    Default Re: Employer Erased an Ex-Employee's Personal Computer

    You can ascribe whatever reasoning you want to their actions, but they'll counter with the what they said on the face. You're unlikely to prevail and you're appear to have hardly any damages that would be recoverable even if they were 100% in the wrong.

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