laptop repairs

[lonewolf376]

wonder if anyone can help,

 

last Tuesday I took my laptop in to a local repair shop to have the fan cleaned, part of the service was also a hard drive diagnostic which I agreed to, I asked how long it would take and got the reply "probably tomorrow" reluctantly I agreed and left, when I returned the next day I was told that there was a problem with drive and it was faulty and they were trying to fix the problem and to come back later that day, which I duly did to be told that they couldn`t do it and were going to clone my drive drop in a new one and move all the data across and that it would take, surprise surprise until the next day, I went back the next day to be told that the clone didn't work and that a data recovery process was the only way forward which I had no choice but to agree to, however when I went back the next day the data recovery hadn't worked but I did have a new hard drive in the laptop, albeit with nothing on it apart from windows and my old hard drive in plastic bag, when I questioned how to get my data back the response was "not our problem, you should have backed it up" they also refused to put the old hard drive back in so I could do this, (they claim it might not boot) and refused to sign the receipt to say I had paid under protest. because of this company I have lost important business documents, personal documents, pictures and over £300 worth of downloaded music. I have since taken the old hard drive to another specialist who did a very quick check of the drive and could find no data on it whatsoever. what I would like to know is where I stand in relation to recovering this data and/or having the old drive put back in

 

thank you

[renegadeimp]

DO you have proof of what you claim is on the HDD? If so, send them a LBA, then follow it up with a court claim. If you choose to do this, do NOT give them time to move, soon as your stated deadline is up, you issue that claim and keep track of the timescales.

 

To me, it sounds like they were very inexperienced and performed a format on the HDD. They then tried to recover the data, but again, because they were inexperienced, they were unable to.

 

I'm thinking their insurance MIGHT cover this, perhaps try that way.

[san_d]

Rule number one is to back up your data. If you haven't done it and you cannot prove it's their fault there's nothing you can do.

[chiefengineer]

san_d is absolutely right about backups. I'm curious as to why any shop would do an HD diagnostic ad standard? Murden drives are virtually bulletproof.

 

Jeremy

[renegadeimp]

Spinner drives need diagnostics. SSD's very rarely do.

[lonewolf376]

thanks for the advice, I`ve taken the old HDD to another company who have found the data and are recovering it for me, however they did say there was no need to remove the hard drive in the first place,

 

once again many thanks

[renegadeimp]

As i said, the other company were severely inexperienced. Data recovery is a very simple process. It just takes time.

[nuclearshark]

*insidious thought alert*

 

It sounds like they wiped the data from the disk probably by accident. That's pure incompetence right there. As an IT Engineer myself, if I had any thoughts whatsoever that a hard disk had a fault, I would have taken everything off it straight away and then done the tests. It angers me that people cannot hold their hands up and say "I'm sorry I messed up" no matter how hard that is. If you're honest about things, then people may use you again. Everyone makes mistakes.

 

Only a couple of weeks back I did some work for a chap and then accidentally caused them a wasted journey to collect a laptop of about 20 miles. When I realised I had messed up I refused to charge the customer labour and only for parts. In this case some antivirus software. He was adamant however that he didn't want to "rip me off" so to speak and I accepted the labour at half price.

 

renegadeimp is right, Data Recovery is a fairly simple process but can take ages for the software to run. Recuva is a good program to have if you accidentally delete a file. Don't install it AFTER you have deleted the file though, it might overwrite it.

 

lonewolf, if I were you, I would be reporting the IT Firm to Trading Standards, The Letter Before Action as renegadeimp suggested for a refund of the cowboys bill is not a bad idea either IF the data is fully or partially recovered. A signed statement from the firm who have recovered the data to say the data has been recovered and the methods used would be sufficient.

 

Saying you should have made a backup is of course correct. But the cowboys would say that as it shifts the blame away from them.

 

I'm wondering if the SOGA 1979 could come into this in some form? That would be worth knowing for my own reference as well. SOGA as in services charged but not received etc.

 

Shark