All my data wiped out by tech guys at Curry's

[polly67]

Hello, Just looking for some advice really. The laptop my husbandbought for me at xmas stopped connecting to the internet at beg of march. I tried to back up all my stuff to CD but the drive didn't work, I checked the cD in another computer ...no info on it. When I took it to Curry's one of the tech guys stopped me buying a gigabyte pen to back up my stuff saying he wouldn't need to reformat it anyway so the stuff would be ok! ( yep isn't hindsight a wonderful thing) Anyway he rang up later in the afternoon to say he would need to wipe everything off and start again but he would back up my stuff to CD. I got the laptop back the next day....still didn't connect to internet and CD drive still not working so I took it back. The next night I went to use the CD for some stuff I was doing at work and it was completely empty! 7 years of info/lesson plans/schemes of work etc gone! I was and am absolutely devastated. My hubby took the CD into Curry's to speak to tech guy, he said he would try to recover data. Phoned the next day to say he had recovered it and put it on a pen. Unfortunately when i got it home it was all gobbeldegook so off I wnet back to Curry's again!! Computer has been in Birmingham somewhere on some expensive machine but they can't recover any of my stuff. He has apologised profuesly and admitted it was his fault. He said he can't believe he has made such a school boy error.

Curry's have offered me Office 2007 as I can't use my copy anymore as i'd loaded it too many times ( twice on new laptop) as compensation. In my eyes all they have done is give me back what I had already minus all my work. i am npw faced with re typing all my school stuff and doing my lesson plans again.

What should I do now? What are my rights? CAn anyone help me?

Thanks
Polly

[polly67]

Can anybody offer any advice on how I can proceed? I'm at my wit's end.

[Rich44]

Well for a start You should be able to use your copy of Office if you call MS theyre not really ogres in that regard but i'm sure thats the last of your worries really.

Sorry to say that if you have a look at any paperwork from Comet/Currys/PCWorld they all say the same thing that they are not responsible for data loss so i'm fairly sure you're bunched on that from a legal PoV, that said they do have a moral obligation to get you something for your trouble.

Sadly when you wipe a machine the data is usually recoverable but when you then reload stuff onto it the data is irretrievably overwritten which is what looks like has happened here, can they try data recovery on the pen which you said was corrupted?

I don't know how far you could push then on this but a harsh letter to head office may yield some results.

Good luck

[polly67]

Thanks for that.
The 'tech guy' assured me that he would not lose my information and said there was no need for me to buy the pen to back stuff up on. He rang us at home about an hour later to say he would need to reformat (?) it but once again reassured me that he would back up my stuff to CD.

I am now in process of writing very 'cross' letter to head office!

[polly67]

The corrupted data on CD was recovered from the laptop once it had been rewritten.

[clavileno]

Originally Posted by polly67

The corrupted data on CD was recovered from the laptop once it had been rewritten.

Just for completeness, does that mean you did get all your data back in the end or not?

[polly67]

No. All the info that had been saved to the cd was corrupted.
I have no data at all. Completely wiped out by the expert tech guy in curry's who promised me it wouldn't happen.

[dx100uk]

i would be interested in two things here:
1. i doubt your data HAS gone, now-a-days most HDD's are quite large & even if a format was done, i suspect your data is still recoverable, just need the right tools. a quick search on google will reveal many unerase or unformat tools that should do it nicely.

2. the contents of this cd......have your viewed any of the 'corrupted' files in just plain notepad? can you see text you have entered - all-be-it within pages of maybe line after line of squares/.

let me know..pm if you wish.
i have met very few HDD's that cannot be pursuaded to reveal old files even after a repartition.

dx100uk
pc tech +20yrs

[blacksheep1979]

you say you lost 7 years worth of plans etc but only got the laptop at xmas - where was all this data before and don't you have it at least partially elsewhere?

[polly67]

disc was full of little squares.

I didn't ahve it stored anywhere cos I transferred it from my old laptop to the new one and deleted all the files. Old laptop then went back into the 'pool' /reformatted and given to someone else.

New laptop sent off by Curry's to a super machine in Birmingham......couldn't get it back.......
have recovered some data by copying files from colleagues but lots and lots of stuff gone. My stupid fault for not backin up at xmas and believing the guy in Curry's. Have learnt my lesson that's for sure!

[cdee]

that's terrible service. where was this currys store? i didnt know they had technicians in there.

[olly18uk]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. First of all I would just like to mention Currys do not have Tech Guys, so he must of been just a normal customer advisor. Unfortunately the post before regarding responsibility of data is not covered by Tech guys, unfortunately this is true, the specialist terminal they use is provided by Ontrack and is a very hit and miss terminal. The only other thing that you could possibly pursue is taking it to a PCW store and ask for the advanced recovery process, however you would be looking at 699GBP

[john1980]

I myself have found the Tech Guys providing me with duff information. Telling me they'd done stuff which they hadn't and saying they couldn't do anything without an engineer looking at it. After getting frustrated with their poor level of service I decided to try out one of their competitors. I contacted supportinabox.com and found a much more helpful attitude and willingness to help. Not bad for under £100 for a year of unlimited support.

[patrickq1]

look for a file called boomerang data recovery try zdnet they may have a demo version this should enable you tyo retreive most of your data
good luck

[mkandy]

The only real way to rid data on a drive is to drill a hole through it!

Get the right software and you can get anything off a drive, it will cost you though.

[Rich44]

Really so you think you're going to recover data after using military grade software to remove the information.

I agree the only way to guarantee 100% is to destroy the drive, btw putting a hole thru it isnt enough a forensic data lab could still recover at least some data from the drive if you want to be really sure you need a hard drive shredder but all of this is way off topic....

[patdavies]

The only way to destroy the data on a drive completely is to destroy the drive.

A security organisation that I know of takes off the cover and immerses the drive in brine (sea water). The salt completely destroys the magnetic media and any cache chips over a few days.

[Misphit]

Hi Polly, As I used to repair laptops for the techguys I am extremely shocked to hear this. The Guy should not have attempted to do anything with your data, he should have simply replaced the hard drive and returned the old hard drive for the you to recover yourself later on. If they lose any of your data I understand you can take them to court and you will win.

[Rich44]

I seriously doubt they would return the faulty drive as that would go back to the manufacturer under warranty