Repair tech said hard drive reformat necessary to fix dvd burner

[MacCrazy]

I carried my laptop Toshiba with a dvd-rw drive in to have the burner 'fixed'. I asked if the information would be safe on my hard drive and their reply was 'I don't see any reason why your hard drive would have anything to do with this repair'. Sure enough, when I got my laptop back three weeks later, they had completely reformatted my hard drive. This is where I need someone with tech savvy to give me some input please. I was told that it was necessary to reformat my hard drive because spyware could be causing my drive not to work. Number one, is this true? Number two, could they have not used some type of program to ferret out spyware rather than take the easy road of reformatting my hard drive? I am so frustrated with these people. To make matters worse, they did not fix the initial problem. Thanks for any input.

 

[iss]

Did you give them permission to reformat your hard drive? they had no business doing a reformat without consulting you first. a good business will fiind out what is wrong with your computer then contact you and advise you what it will take to fix the problem before proceding. I would not do usiness with those folks again.

 

[topsites]

For a tech-savvy answer, I feel it depends somewhat on priorities...

If the information on your hard-drive is more important than the DVD-burner working, then a re-format is out of the question. Were you explicit enough with them in this regard? I do not know, I was not there to hear how you phrased this point to them, thou I did hear you at least gave a hint that it WAS important, this information.

If the DVD-burner working is the most important factor, perhaps a re-format is to us a bit of overkill but for a technician it is also usually the fast way out. I am not saying that technicians are looking for an easy buck, but what I am saying is the fast way out is cheapest for them, and thus for you.

I've ran my HDD without a re-format for close to 3 years now.
But, this causes problems... I recently did a re-structuring of the system files (not intentional at first) and have lost all favorites, all settings, all passwords/usernames/etc... In addition, I have no CD-Rom burning ability, the file-search function doesn't work (it does but you have to do it from the commandline) and the list goes on... Thou I did manage to get the 'Help and Support' section working again AND considering my pc wouldn't work at all 24 hours ago, I am content because other than missing some shortcuts and having to re-load and re-do a lot of stuff, all my files are still intact.

So, we compromise. We trade 'all our information intact' for functionality, or the loss of it. Thus, the most functional pc is one with nothing on it.

Is it because of spyware?
I've been on the technicians side thus far, knowing from experience because I operate a small service company myself that easy-way-out = cheapest price. But this bit would've pissed me off, I don't like somebody feeding me a bunch of bull, he could've just said it was the easy thing to do.

Far as it still not working... Now you are at the point where you got nothing left to lose... Should you take it back and let them know that, since they lost your information despite the fact it it still not working, they at least could've got it running? Yeah, I think I would, let them sweat it and call them and bother them a bit (but not too much) and maybe it will work.

Keep in mind my cd-rw doesn't work, I think it has something to do with XP myself.

 

[MacCrazy]

Thanks for the reply ISS. I was told that my hard drive would be fine, by the technician that checked my machine in. The computer was sent elsewhere for repair, and according to them, they did not have any control over what the tech did at that facility. Same corportation, different repair site. I told them that was an unacceptable explaination.

 

[iss]

I would contact a supervisor and lodge a complaint about the situation. that is a very shoddy way of doing business.