Okay so let’s walk through this scenario shall we? You have a laptop that you would like to take down to the pawn shop, but what is it that they do with them?
Well when you go down to local pawn shop to make a loan against your laptop what is going to happen is that they are going to keep your laptop safe and secure, just the way you brought it in, on a shelf or other secured storage area.
When you are ready to pick up your laptop, they will give it back to you just as you brought it in.
Now the scenario changes a bit if you should happen to forfeit the laptop that was on loan, or if you sell the laptop out right to the pawn shop.
One of the things that you may be concerned about is your private information or whatever bills and records you may currently have on your laptop, but as you will find out, you have no reason to worry.
Before pawnshops resell laptops to other customers they will almost always make sure that the laptop is formatted, or otherwise has had the previous owner’s information completely erased from.
This process is sometimes known as “Wiping” a laptop, but it can be done through a variety of different methods – but the end result is the same – the old owner’s information is no-place to be seen and can’t be accessed.
If you take your computer or laptop into a pawn shop and make a loan on it then you can reasonably assured that the pawn shop will absolutely wipe all of your old data off it before they resell it to another customer. Of course, if you made a loan on it and come back and get it in the agreed upon time, then you will have no fear of them wiping it. They will only wipe a laptop that they are preparing to resell.
So Pawnshop To Do Wipe Laptops Before Reselling Them
In 99% of cases that I’m aware of, yes all pawn shops will wipe or what is otherwise known as reformatting the laptop before they resell it to another customer.
Because of this process you really have nothing to worry about in regards to your previous information or any kind of other personal documents you may have had on your laptop when you took it into the pawn shop.
While most pawn shops will opt to use the partition built into the laptop to reformat the computer back to its factory original settings, some pawn shops use a specific restoration or data removal desk to take care of this process for them.
There are a variety of tools that pawn shops have available to them to help them do this overall but whatever method they use, your information will be gone forever.
Even if your laptop was password-protected most pawnshops will be able to defeat that password to get around it and reformatted computer and then go on to resell it to another customer.
For the most part pawnshops are concerned that they could be somewhat liable for your information if it was otherwise distributed to another customer.
Because of this legal concern, pawn shops will do whatever they have to do to make sure that the laptops they resell do not contain the previous owners information on them any longer.
This is really just the basic process for virtually every pawn shop that I’m aware of that takes in laptops.
It protects both the customer who sold laptop, or made a loan on it that later forfeited, as well as the customer who purchases the laptop afterwards.
Not only does the previous owner’s important information or other personal documents no longer exist on the laptop, but neither do any potential viruses or worms, or other miscellaneous computer infections that they may have acquired over the years.
Will They Wipe A Laptop When It Is Just In On Loan
No a pawn shop will not wipe the laptop that you take in and make a loan. That is of course assuming that you do not default on the loan.
A pawn shop will keep your laptop in the same condition that it was when you brought it in. Whatever’s on the laptop when you drop it off is what is going to be on the laptop when you pick it up.
The only times a pawn shop will wipe a laptop is when they have to resell it to a new customer. As long as you pay on your loan, or redeem it in a reasonable time, your laptop is going to be just the same as it was when you have brought it in.
