[Tribune7]

Laptop hard drives can be hard to remove and replace, but you would think they would at least format the drive and re-install...

Unless, they didn't want to lose software for which they *lost* the installation disks.

[CA Conservative]

Unless, they didn't want to lose software for which they *lost* the installation disks.

Yep, that's the most likely explanation. If I take over someone else's system, I not only format, I wipe the drive completely and reload from scratch.