Help! Dell wants to wipe my hard drive!

I have CompleteCare until June 30th so I need to take care of this issue ASAP before it expires.

Here's the story: Last Thursday night, I spilled an entire cup of water on my Studio XPS 1640. I yanked the battery but I could already see it was futile as water was dripping out the fan. Surprisingly, it booted Saturday, and the only issue was that the Windows key stuck, not allowing me to log into my computer, even with an external USB keyboard. (It now doesn't boot and I have a brick.)

I called Tech Support and after half an hour trying to transfer my warranty (this computer's a replacement for another computer Dell lost for me) the guy said he'd create a dispatch to get my laptop sent in. There's only one catch: Because I'm unable to log in due to the keyboard issue, they apparently have some kind of protocol that says there might be a software problem and hence they have to REIMAGE my hard drive.

I can't just detach the hard drive and send the computer in so they fix the dead components and don't screw with my data. Instead, I have to buy a hard drive (the rep tried to make me get a 1TB for $140 over phone), copy everything over somehow using a host computer, and send it in to be imaged. Almost assuredly when I get it back there'll be a BSOD every day until I delete some corrupt driver. (That was the case when I got my computer in January.) I've never done a complete backup of my computer before - just backed up files - and I'm a little afraid at having to do this as a requirement to get my computer fixed.

I know that, given a hard drive to be sent in, Dell doesn't guarantee that your data won't be lost. This is why you can remove it from the computer. How can they now guarantee that my data WILL be lost, and make an external HD mandatory for my keyboard to be fixed? Is this usual?

 

Well my hard drive was faulty on my XPS which they replaced the following day (XPS Premium Support) they also gave me the option of retaining the old one for a couple of days, in order for me to transfer the data across myself, which I accepted.

Ask them if they'll let you do the same? It's quite easy to transfer the data, I used - EASEUS Disk Copy: Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone, Partition Copy Software. Sector by Sector for hard drive backup freeware.

You'll need to get hold of 2.5 hard drive enclosure (from a portable hard-drive or from ebay).

 

There is no need for you send the drive in for a Complete Care service.

 

This tech is quite adamant about the need to wipe my hard drive once it gets to Dell (unfortunately ruling out robot's idea). Is there a way to detach the hard drive and copy my data to another hard drive using another computer? Regardless I'm going to get a second opinion from XPS support. I feel like only half of what any given tech says is ever true.

 

Follow the second part of my post, above