Mount /home of my SSD on another computer

[Shadowhunter123]

Hi,

I am going to have to return my notebook to the manufacturer's service center. I have a Linux Mint 18.3 installation on the notebook, my user account is secured by a password. Of course I am going to erase all critical and personal data on my drive, before I send it out to customer support services.
However, I am wondering whether or not my SSD/hard drive, especially my /home directory, can be mounted by the people in the service center, so that they can read out my personal data stored on /home? In other words: Do you have to insert the password to the specific user account in order to gain access to a /home directory on another hard drive?

[JerryF]

Hi,

I am going to have to return my notebook to the manufacturer's service center. I have a Linux Mint 18.3 installation on the notebook, my user account is secured by a password. Of course I am going to erase all critical and personal data on my drive, before I send it out to customer support services.
However, I am wondering whether or not my SSD/hard drive, especially my /home directory, can be mounted by the people in the service center, so that they can read out my personal data stored on /home? In other words: Do you have to insert the password to the specific user account in order to gain access to a /home directory on another hard drive?

No, only if it's encrypted. So if your /home is not encrypted, anyone can read your information in it.

[Shadowhunter123]

Thank you very much!