Laptop

[janminder]

Laptop decided to stop working 😟 so I need to get data retrieved on to an external hardrive. Has childminding photos on can I send it away eg: PC world?

[moggy]

Can't see why not, you can't just chuck the laptop because it happened to have childminding photos on it! I'd speak to the people you give it to, ask about their data protection policies. You could let parents know if you think they would be concerned. You might want to look into local PC services so you know where the laptop is and can speak to them face to face rather than sending it away somewhere. I hope you get the data back, must be very annoying to have that happen. I try to remember to back-up my CM files monthly on to a USB stick just in case. This has reminded me to do it now!

[janminder]

Something I kept meaning to do. Have done before but probably not for about 2 years so grandchildren family events as well as some childminding. I was thinking Currys PC world knowhow as they should be reputable.

[FloraDora]

Years ago, when computers first were a thing and PCWorld were fledglings, I had a very bad experience with PC World. Big firm, procedures in place but individuals couldn't really care less, low wages, couldn't care less about standard of job....but that's just my opinion, based on ancient experience.
I am not very good at forgiving so sought out a well recommended local guy and have used him ever since.....so my advice would be enquire about a local IT specialist with a good reputation. It will be much cheaper and you can talk better to them. Ask about data protection etc as advised earlier.
A good reminder about having automatic back ups though.

[bunyip]

I don't believe any data is 100% safe or any measures 100% protected, so you just do the best you can. I doubt the ICO expect anything different.

Having it fixed is no riskier than throwing it away. The pictures remain on a discarded machine unless you send it away for data-scrubbing, which still means someone working on it without your supervision.

It helps to have sensitive folders password-protected. That way, a pc maintenance guy can log in to fix various problems without viewing data.

I use a local specialist too. Apart from anything else, he's less anonymous and therefore more accountable than people within a big company.