Currys "repair" team wiped my laptop - is there anything I can do?

Mammamaya

victor2 said:

But you did also say "and I have mentioned that I would also like to get the yearly health check done", which is what resulted in the clean installation.

Yes I wrote it into the OP because the guy specifically said it will need to be booked for one when it comes back from getting the hinge fixed, so the repair instrucitons were purely for the mechanical repair of the broken hinge. So since it had not been for the health check, I wouldn't have expected any fixing of my OS.

Well done on helping with such issues to your friends. not everyone knows all details of computer maintanance. I do back up my data but haven't thought of creating an image - would that have restored all my downloaded and installed stuff back on even after full wipe and reinstall/upgrade of OS?

victor2

Mammamaya said:

victor2 said:

But you did also say "and I have mentioned that I would also like to get the yearly health check done", which is what resulted in the clean installation.

Yes I wrote it into the OP because the guy specifically said it will need to be booked for one when it comes back from getting the hinge fixed, so the repair instrucitons were purely for the mechanical repair of the broken hinge. So since it had not been for the health check, I wouldn't have expected any fixing of my OS.

Well done on helping with such issues to your friends. not everyone knows all details of computer maintanance. I do back up my data but haven't thought of creating an image - would that have restored all my downloaded and installed stuff back on even after full wipe and reinstall/upgrade of OS?

OK, then I suppose they just did a check of the OS after the hinge repair and decided it needed reinstalling, as another poster suggested.
An image of the system drive (I also use the free Macrium software) to a USB drive or stick will allow you to restore that image into a new system drive as it was when the backup was made. You can also restore individual files from the backup.

booneruk

Mammamaya said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

as it was in for a hinge repair, should they even have pried into your system?

That's exactly my point. I think the 'service' they had done is an overreach of their access in the view of what they were expeced to do and I am wondering if there is a way to take it up with them...

How did they pry? Did you leave them with an admin level username & password, or did they hack one themselves using a special boot USB etc

Peter999_2

Hi Mammamaya.      Yes, Macrium would have restored the computer to exactly the same as when you create the backup.

I use it on my own laptop and it works great.

There is a youtube video here that shows you how to make the backup :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEFI7eO1rfU

RumRat

Mammamaya said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

as it was in for a hinge repair, should they even have pried into your system?

That's exactly my point. I think the 'service' they had done is an overreach of their access in the view of what they were expeced to do and I am wondering if there is a way to take it up with them...

How would you expect them to do a health check without looking? In fact, I doubt anyone looked at anything personal, they probably just ran diagnostics which flagged up the problems and then did a reinstall.
This wasn't a problem for them as you had backed up your system before handing it over to them....of course. 🤔

Mammamaya

RumRat said:

Mammamaya said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

as it was in for a hinge repair, should they even have pried into your system?

That's exactly my point. I think the 'service' they had done is an overreach of their access in the view of what they were expeced to do and I am wondering if there is a way to take it up with them...

How would you expect them to do a health check without looking? In fact, I doubt anyone looked at anything personal, they probably just ran diagnostics which flagged up the problems and then did a reinstall.
This wasn't a problem for them as you had backed up your system before handing it over to them....of course. 🤔

They were not supposed to do a health check. It was due to be booked for one later, it was sent away to fix a hinge. I was not having much issues with the laptop when I was taking it in, certainly not serious enough to have to reinsall OS...I don't really care how much they were looking, I care about the fact that they have done work no one asked them to do and in the process added much more work for me. I have a back up of the data, but will need to re install all the software, games and tools I had on my laptop, because the had been wiped off and I didn't know about the possibility of making an image of the system drive with Macrium. 

debitcardmayhem

I suppose you should have removed the Disk Drive before sending it for repair

chrisw

I suspect it's just a chalk it up to experience. They will simply point to the form you signed. I doubt you will get any financial compensation as there is no financial loss, only your time. The 'what if it had been my mum' argument is irrelevant.

Whilst it's a bit of a pain, sometimes it can be quite good to have an enforced clear out.

RumRat

When they said they can 'Book it in for the health check once it comes back from repair' I'm guessing that's exactly what he did, when it was returned to them. Your assumption was that you would get it back and they would then offer to book it in. I can see where the confusion would be, but, they didn't do anything wrong IMO.

[Deleted User]

There should be a sticky at the top of this forum to remind all technology users to fully backup phones / laptops / PC's etc.

A phone / hard disk is a temporary storage device, in my experience, they last anything from 6 weeks to 14 years before they totally fail and lose all your data - some may have other experiences shorter or longer.

In addition, loss, theft, damage, user error and unexpected events such as the Curry's incident are also regular causes of loss of data.

Just backup everything regularly and there will nothing less to  worry about.