Hp screwed me big time

Have an hp dv9428nr. The video chip was going out. Hp covered it under warranty. I sent it in.I just got it back. They say the fixed the mb AND reimaged the hard drive! There was no reason for them to reimage the drive! Worst thing is my appraisal software and appraisals WERE on it. I'm ready to shoot myself.

 

ALWAYS backup important data. I know it doesn't mean much now, but seriously, always backup important data.

External drives are worth their weight in gold.
Also I wouldn't blame HP. They're just doing what they thought was necessary.

 

Man, they could have at least called me first.

 

HP was always going to wipe the drive clean and re-image it. Any good technician (worth his or her salt) knows that if you change the MB (even if it is replaced with the exact same one) you always do a fresh install to make sure windows doesn't freak out.

HP probably has hundreds if not thousands of repairs to do each day on several models so I doubt they would have the time to call individual customers to ask if they can wipe your hard drive clean. They will just assume that you have all of the important data replicated somewhere else. After all they could have also decided to change your hard drive as well as the MB and they definitely wouldn't be sending you back your old drive with your data.

NiteWalker has given you some wise advice for the future

 

Wow. Laptops, being lose-able, steal-able, and mostly disposable, are the last place I'd keep the only copies of my business records.

 

hughthehand, if the value of the lost data is really high for you (I'm not talking about the software, it's clearly gone, but the appraisals themselves), you can still try to recover them. Yes, I know they formatted the disk and re-installed windows, but the chances are - you can still recover your data. It's not cheap (~$500-$1000 if you do it through a company), but it's possible. If you decide to try, make sure that you select "pay only if the data are recovered" contract (many data recovery companies have this option).

 

I have been dealing with HP for years and they have always had this policy. EVERY computer that comes in for service is formatted. Chances are, they told you that and/or stated it on a paper you got somewhere. Sorry to hear of your plight but you should definately be backing up such important things anyway.

 

They tell you on the paperwork they send with the empty box that it is possible they will reimage the drive.

 

I sent in my dv2500 for graphics card/mobo replacement. I was planning on reinstalling all my stuff when i got it back, but they never reformatted. worked fine. I guess it depends on who gets it?

 

I'm in the middle of some serious data recovery right now. It was my fault for not figuring if it can happen, it will. I'm using EASEUS data recovery now. Things are looking up. 226,000 files so far with 1 more hour of scanning to go. If I can just get my appraisals and pictures, I'm not to worried about the docs. I do have those backed up.It's just alot of work I never planed on doing.

 

Wow... don't know what to make of people who don't back up.

I have everything backed up in triplicate, portable external... home server and for my most important stuff I have it backed up on a fourth drive kept in my safe deposit box at the bank.

 

Well Bam, you see, some people don't have time to visit their safe deposit box every day. And some people deal with new important documents every day too
Backup is, no doubt, very important safety precaution, but things may happen even if you have 50 deposit boxes with external drives. A few examples: viruses (the nasty ones), database corruption (which normally cannot be cured by a regular "backup" at all) and, of course, data corruption. I suppose you check your EVERY backup for data corruption? Because there is a good (~0.1% or 1 in 1000) chance that all your 3 backups may be corrupted right now - that is if you propagate the image from one to another
My point is: don't judge...

 

I hope you'll be able to restore what you need. Good luck!

 

IMHO that's a great backup plan, but overkill unless you're a spy...

 

Glad too see you may get your files back

 

I guess I never really tried it. I just remove the drives before sending anything in.

Glad you are probably going to get your stuff back!

 

xDuo. I've sent in two for the mobo replacement, neither were reformatted. I backed up mine because the form said it may be reformatted, and the other was a customer's so I cared not.

 

Asus asks before doing such things. (it's kind of a big deal)

 

I've been using Apricorn EZ Gig II to make a bootable clone HDD to leave locked up along with a second internal HDD for backup and recovery partitions. I highly recommend using it! For only $40 it is priceless and easy to use! No matter what happens I can pull the HDD and put in the other one to keep up and running.
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=reg&id=1023