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Stolen iMac Help?

L

Luisc518

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 13, 2011
3
0
I need some help. A client of mine had his iMac stolen. He has one of those tracing softwares installed on it...I am not sure but I think its either undercover or lojack. Is there anyway that the perp who stole it can wipe the computer clean where these softwares will be deleted, or do they installed even after the hard drive gets wiped? He said he tried activating his undercover but it is not showing that his computer has been online.

I am not sure about all this since the only Apple product I have is an iPhone :-(

Please Help.
 
Unfortunately, all the guy has to do is boot it from a DVD and wipe the drive.

However, most thieves aren't that bright
 
If the thief wipes the hard drive clean and then connects to the internet, Will the programs still work?
 
My brother had his iMac stolen, and we had to wait a while for it to show up on the Internet. Had to wait for the thief to find someone to buy it - the buyer connected it to the Internet.
 
I've heard that the tracking system is not too precise, the range within where they could be located is big. Only what I have heard. Is this true? I'm talking about LoJack in this specific situation.
 
But if they wipe the hard drive clean then these programs get erased as well? Is that correct? I just want to give my client some hope if any
 
Luisc518 said:
But if they wipe the hard drive clean then these programs get erased as well? Is that correct? I just want to give my client some hope if any
Click to expand...

Yes. When a drive is erased, things on that drive get erased.

"Lucky" for you, most thieves aren't that smart. There is some hope that they aren't trying to pawn it off immediately and that they use it for personal use.
 
I hear that you have to enable to guest user if you have passwords on your own data for undercover to work. The wifi location is crap here in the UK and told me my iMac was 25 miles away.

What it does do though is take photos and screen shots of the offender and upload to the internet.

To stop the offender wiping your hard drive, undercover states you have to change the firmware password? Never done it, you might want to check undercovers website.
 
I'm a student living in shared accommodation with 5 other people. I'm thinking of getting insurance to cover the 27"iMac I purchased 2 days ago... Cover shouldn't be too expensive with student discount I guess...
 
vodouman said:
I'm a student living in shared accommodation with 5 other people. I'm thinking of getting insurance to cover the 27"iMac I purchased 2 days ago... Cover shouldn't be too expensive with student discount I guess...
Click to expand...

I definitely would (Mainly as iMacs are just the sort of thing that goes walkabout apparently... kinda makes me fearful for my Pro... thankfully its insured...)
 
Was totally new to mac, had a imac 27 stolen last week. I dont know if or what software for tracking i would of had on it. If there was how do i go about tracking it ?Thanks for any replys.
 
Sorry to hear that Rod christian. Your Mac did not come pre-loaded with any tracking software, so you would have had to have installed one before it was stolen to be able to utilize its services to recover your iMac. As the OP indicated, there is tracking software you can purchase, namely Undercover and LoJack, but I'm sure there are others.
 
considering the thief would be smart enough to format the drive he probably can't change the serial # in the mainboard. Even if it is scratched off the bottom it's written into the firmware.

You can hope that sometime in it's life it will be taken in for some sort of service. Report the serial # to Apple and if it ever goes in it will red flag.

Good luck, I'd want to shoot the person who stole my iMac if it happened. :D
 
Posts like this always make me nervous, especially when the OP joined the same day they made the thread.

We may have just helped a thief get away with it......


Just saying is all ;)
 
...ok, ?

i wonder how did someone mange to steel a huge monitor i heard of missing MacBooks but not an imac. ??? just wondering... and wait.... wouldn't the thief have to know your password to use the mac incase of throwing the tracker app away?
 
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hope the thief is not clever enough to read forums
otherwise he would now just take the iMac apart and sell the bits on ebay ..minus the logicboard brings more money in his pocket that way and very very unlikely can be traced back to him
and with quiet a few still buy iMac's without apple care and other break parts while upgrading DIY style voiding their warranty or just dropped theirs ... the demand for parts is good and nobody at ebay will ask where the graphics card comes from or where the processor comes from or the display or the casing, all people are interested in then is the price and if its lower then the price at apple they will fight over it

so enough tips for the thief

hope he's not clever and goes online ....good luck
 
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If he is the thief we may as well tell him to Google how to change the serial # on an iMac and to go onto eBay and ask someone for the serial # from a similar iMac they are selling.

May as well go all in, F it :eek:
 
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