How to trace or find location of my new hp laptop which is stolen?

[shivasis]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I purchased a new HP Laptop on 12th Aug 2018 from a local store at Sendhwa(M.P.), India. But while travelling by bus on 27th Aug 2018, it was stolen by someone.

The details of HP Laptop are as follows:

Model No: 15-BS662TU

Serial No: [removed per Rules Of Participation]

Product No: 4JA76PA#ACJ

Kindly help me to trace this laptop and if possible guide me about how to trace the location of the above laptop when in use. For this I shall be thankful to you forever.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

Krushna

[personal information removed per Rules Of Participation]

[CherylG]

@shivasis

Unfortunately, without tracking software such as LoJack there aren't a lot of reliable ways to track a stolen laptop. There are a few ways to get an IP address if the thief gets online:

https://www.quora.com/Can-a-stolen-laptop-be-tracked-If-yes-then-how
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/laptop/how-track-laptop-after-its-been-stolen-3676037/

[David_J_W]

It is worth contacting HP India to see if they can flag this system as stolen in their records - but this will really not make any difference unless law enforcement recover the laptop and contact HP to see what they know about the owner.

As @CherylG says, really the only hope of tracking a stolen laptop is if the system had Lojack support in the BIOS and the owner had subscribed to and installed the Lojack service before the system was stolen. Even then, there is no guarantee of recovery, especially if the thief is prepared to destroy the system board and get what they can by selling the rest of the components.

Other tracing solutions exist, but without BIOS support these can be trivially disabled by wiping the hard disk or solid state drive. Most laptops do not have a built in GPS receiver (it is normally only those with WWAN hardware that do), so DIY tracing is far less likely to work than with a mobile phone which typically will have a GPS receiver.

It is easy to be wise after the fact. The most precious thing on any laptop is the data, so you should take steps such as regular backups and/or using cloud storage to ensure that the only copy of any precious data is not the copy you are carrying around on an easily stolen and fragile computer. Hard disks and even solid state drives can and do fail - this is another reason for backups. If the data is in any way sensitive, encryption should be used - ideally full disk encryption products such as the Bitlocker feature of Windows 10 Pro.

So far as securing the hardware goes, there are locking cables, though these are really just a deterrent to opportunistic theft and no more. The locking cables are easily cut and the heads of most computer locks are made of zinc which is easy to melt. A determined thief who does not mind some damage to the case can simply rip the lock out of most laptops, especially those with a plastic case. I do carry and use a Kensington lock, but I am well aware of its limitations.

The only guaranteed way to protect yourself from the financial impact of a stolen laptop is insurance.