Hewlett Packard Wipes Your Hard Drive To Fix A Broken Key On Your Keyboard
Here's a story that should help to remind you to back up all your data — even if you're just getting a key replaced on your keyboard.
Reader Marjan says HP has official policy that requires that they erase your hard drive — even if there's nothing wrong with your computer that would require them to even turn it on.
Marjan says:
The "P" key broke off my HP laptop within one month of its purchase back in April. I asked them to send me the key so I could repair it myself, but they said I must send in my entire computer.
Fast forward to December when I (graduate student) finally have the chance/luxury to send in my computer for repair.
I just got my computer back today to find my entire hard drive deleted and re-done.
Nobody at HP even told me it was a possibility (let alone a "STANDARD POLICY") that hard drives are erased when a computer is sent in for repair — regardless of the nature of the repair. Even ONE key on the keyboard. Even a little scratch apparently requires a full hard-drive erasing. Got my "P" key, but at the cost of my computer's hard drive. Unnecessary. Absurd.
I feel like a hospital patient who went in for routine surgery and woke up with an effing amputated leg.
Wasted two hours debating with four different men about why I shouldn't be punished for one idiot's inability to inform me of this supposed standard policy. I told them they had to compensate for my losses, at least by giving me a new Norton Antivirus product key because I still had time left on the warranty. But they said once the computer was shipped to me back in April, my old product key became my responsibility: It was my fault if I lost it. I demanded some sort of compensation or credit. HP had made a mistake. But they refused.
I asked to speak to somebody higher-up. But the senior technician claimed he was the highest-up person I could speak to. He breathed heavily and in an annoyed way. Said anybody higher than him was "just in charge of scheduling bathroom breaks."
I had zero knowledge and not even the slightest warning that HP would erase everything: "Just give us your log-in password in case something goes wrong," the service guy told me before I sent in my computer for repair. "But they shouldn't have to even turn your computer on."
I am fuming. Pictures, research, creative work, personal work. All gone.
What the hell do I do, or how do I even reach someone sane at HP? Thanks.
I'm not going to pretend to know if your data can be recovered, so we'll toss that one out to the crowd of seething internet — but we do have a few posts than can help you reach someone at HP.
This post is about how to get your laptop back from HP — but it contains contact information that might help you reach intelligent life.
And now here's the official obligatory moral of the story: Please remember to back up your data before sending your computer in for any kind of repair.
Now that that's out of the way, is there anything that can save this data?
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
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They do. I've gotten a couple of laptops repaired through HP, and it's normal for them to wipe the drive. Even for simple repairs, they always told me to back up data.
There's even a big sheet with a warning to back up your data on the sheet you use to send in the laptop.
It's a long shot, but try GetDataBack, it's said to be one of the best data recovery softwares around.
If you have a broken key, insist they mail it to you. They just snap on.
sometimes a lot of data can be recovered if new data is not saved. Your computer merely deleted part of the file index when erasing.. unless they did a low-level format. I've had entire hard drives go blank on me, and by using some recovery software without saving any new data to the drive, i've recovered the entire HDD.. then went bought a new external HDD.
My preferred software of choice was EASEUS' Data Recovery Wizard Pro.
As always, no guarantees that it would work in this situation. but i recovered photos and videos that were priceless to me and it was well worth the $90.
I send laptops to them all the time for warranty work. My secret: remove the hard drive, then send it in. Hard to wipe what is not there.
I don't understand. Why on earth would they need to wipe your hard drive for anything? That doesn't make any sense.
The possibility of being able to recover the data depends on whether or not this computer is his exact computer. I know with some electronics they send you a recertified device rather than repairing your exact computer to save time and money. This is probably why they have that policy. If it is your exact computer then you can get some recovery software to do the trick. What he should look for is a bootable cd image and it would require having a second hard drive of enough space to copy the files to. Personally I think it is crazy that they would do this for one broken key.
I had a broken hinge on my Dell, and they had me remove the hard drive before sending it. Probably a good tip for future users of HP's 'service'.
This is odd as anytime I have sent in an HP laptop for repairs if we determine it is hardware I just pull the hard drive and send in the unit by itself, no power adapter, hard drive or battery. As others have noted did it have the form that you list out information on?
Something similar happened to my sister - her hard drive blew up and she needed some very important stuff off of it. THe only thing they could do is send it in to a special forensics lab and take the information off of it that way. It is possible but i think it cost her a couple grand.
Wow, HP sucks. You would think something as potentially damaging as erasing your hard drive would be stated several times on shipping instructions.
At any rate, your best bet is to pay for private restoration from a forensic data professional. I'm not one, and have never used one personally. However, I have heard from colleagues that the service exists beyond the ho hum stuff you can find at best buy or someother retail store.
I think as a way to "make you whole," HP should foot the bill for something like that.
In the meantime, you should avoid using your laptop when possible. The remains of your previous hard drive data will be slowly written over each time you use your computer, or save data on your computer.
Good luck
Always remove your hard drive when sending the machine in for service.
I am sorry, but this is simply not factual. I recently sent my HP laptop in for similar repairs, including replacing a key and an a/c power jack. In addition they made improvements to the system o/s, and bios,
WITHOUT wiping my hard drive.
It is not company policy to wipe the hard drive.
But it is company policy to warn you that any time you send in a laptop to be repaired that there is a possibility that the hard drive will be wiped. It is in writing on the forms that they send you with the box to send in your laptop.
For example, if the broken key had somehow corrupted the o/s or bios in a way that necessitated a re-install of the o/s, they wipe your hard drive and re-set it to the factory default state.
Now I am not a big fan of HP support, they often try tedious and potentially risky o/s fixes before they check hardware (read $$ expense) repairs. But this is simply not a case of HP having made the mistake.
As for the refusal to give Marjan a contact at customer services, that is unforgivable. They are always quick to ask you to fill out a survey if your issue is resolved successfully, they should be at least as attentive to people who are unhappy.
Does not surprise me at all. We had to send out my wife's Compaq laptop, TWICE, to have them replace the wifi antenna (not going to rant about how long it took them to ok the repair). Both times the computer was reset to factory settings. Bot for our situation, they did tell us to back up our data just in case, which we did, mostly music and pics that are backed up any way. But the second time it came back, who ever was working on it, didn't finish the re-installation process. After calling them to have a tech walk us through, they recommended to send it back...again. No thx, just googled the error message and got it up and running.
Provided the data has not been overwritten, it is recoverable. Since I doubt they would take the time to completely wipe the drive, they either removed the master boot record (the thing that tells the computer to boot the operating system) or did a quick format which simply erases the part of the hard drive that points to all the files. Both of these scenarios would leave the files in place provided nothing has been put onto the drive - such as reinstalling windows or using a recovery CD. There are free Linux-based forensic LiveCDs with tools that have the ability to scrape the hard drive, which basically means it will look for any files, reconstruct the files, and sort them usually by file type. While this would not restore your system, at least you haven't lost data. A good CD to use is Helix which has a file recovery tool. It's available here: http://helix.e-fense.com/
@spazztastic: Good idea, but they would probably refuse to service it without the HD since the hardware would be "incomplete".
@private1111: That was probably for a physical hard drive error. They have to pull the drive apart and spin the disks up using a special machine, that's why it cost so much. For a delete or formatted drive you can attempt to use software to recover the data. Some companies will charge a bunch to recover the data even if it wasn't a hardware issue that caused it, but you can also get open-source or relatively inexpensive software that can do it.
HP warranty repair is really hit or miss -- I used to work for Circuit City and we were able to do a majority of the HP warranty work in store -- in the future you can check with them (If your store hasn't closed lol) to see if they are able to order the keyboard directly to the store -- You don't need to have a CC warranty to take it to their stores -- any HP computer under HP warranty they will diagnose and fix any hardware related issues covered under your warranty for free. With that being said, I still hate CC.
As for data - I'd recommend immediately that you don't install any new software or put any new data on your computer -- as another commentator stated, they likely did a "quick format" which just removed the pointers to the files on the hard drive (think of it as removing the index from the front of a book -- all the pages are still there, you just dont know what is what).
There is some good software out there that may help you recover your data on your own -- you just need to have the ability to install your wiped hard drive as a secondary hard drive on another computer. Look into GetDataBack for NTFS or EZ Recovery Professional -- I've had good luck with both software titles.
You also have the option to go through a professional data recovery service -- [www.ontrackdatarecovery.com] is one service I have used in the past and the results were amazing -- check out their website for more information on pricing and services if you are interested.
With all that said, definitely start emailing your experience to some of the higher ups at HP and see if any of the executive or corporate people may be able to assist you.
Good luck with everything
*Also, in the future -- buy an external hard drive -- prices are so cheap now its silly not to have one -- you never know when your HD will die, or something wonky like this HP experience will come up -- $60-$100 for an external HD is a steal as opposed to losing all of your data :( *
@TrueBlue63: It would seem your a exception, as a number of people have already posted it is true. While I myself would never buy a HP product beyond their printers, I had a roommate who did and they did the same thing to him on a graphics card replacement. Full hard drive wipe.
I used to do HP tier III support. This is NOT policy. Users are warned that HP won't be responsible for lost data, but there is no "policy" that the hard drive will be wiped.
I hope he backed up everything, that's kinda his responsibility to back up his stuff before he sends it in in an event like this. Still, that is a horrible thing for Customer Service to do, it has to be standard to inform that data loss might/would/will occur during repairs so the customer knows to backup and call any subscriptions like his Norton. That sucks.
@bluewyvern: Depends on the design, but generally no, you don't have to open the case to remove the hard drive from a laptop. Even if you did, I don't think any reputable company would "void your warranty" over that. Computers are user-servicable.
This exact same thing happened to me, except with Acer. Spacebar broke off my laptop, they refused to send me the replacement key. Comes back and my hard drive is formatted. Granted, in their policy it does state that they may reinstall the factory software if they need to.. but putting a new key on certainly shouldn't require that. Moreso they restored a hard disk image which merged my two drive partitions into one, which isn't technically reformatting or reinstalling factory software. When I emailed them about it they basically told me to go F myself and learn to read.
At my office we have three HP/Compaq NX9420 laptops. On one the motherboard was shot and we sent it in to HP to have it repaired and we got it back with the disk in the same state it was when it left.
I will never buy any consumer grade products because they get the s****y service, I will only buy HP/Compaq or Dell Latitude/Precision laptops because it seems that the little bit more you pay for a business grade notebook you get better service and a more reliable product.
I'm sorry but Marjan is completely in the wrong to blame HP and not themself for this issue. As the saying goes common sense isn't that common nowadays and is a lost commodity.
I am not backing up HP on this one either as I do find it stupid that they formatted it, but think of it this way it's also for your own security. Maybe nudie pics of yourself or your other could wind up on the net if you had someone who would search for that or other personal data. It should be wiped clean first before sent in or the first thing they do is wipe it clean.
How hard is it to purchase an external drive, put it on a USB key or what not? You can buy an external drive for $100. What if your key wasn't the issue and your hard drive crashed? You'd be up shits creek and you'll cry to HP that your system is a month old and the HDD died? Stuff happens.
It's completely your fault and I'm tired of hearing people bitching that they didn't back up their data.
@bluewyvern: i'm assuming this was a laptop, i can't imagine sending in a whole desktop to fix a keyboard. and laptop hard drives are fairly easy to remove, even for complete noobs
also, it's kind of hard to back up your data if your OS crashed.
removing the hard drive is still the best option, and to counter/answer some posts here, removing a hard drive normally will not void your warranty. in fact, many newer laptops now have labeled screws on their laptop cases to tell you what you need to unscrew to get to memory banks, hard drive, and even minipci slots.
never the less, that's a pretty pathetic policy. if my computer needs a hardware repair, it doesn't need me to reinstall every single program and restore every single saved setting/bookmark/cookie/etc.
typical short-sighted/corporate thinking that software and hardware are one and the same =P
except when it comes time to bill. then all of a sudden they're separate =P
OMG! I consider myself the luckiest person in the world then... I sent in my HP laptop for repairs early this summer since it was overheating and they did fix it without wiping my hard drive! Maybe this isnt "standard policy"?
to answer the question about data recovery - Short version: highly unlikely that you will be able to recover anything*
When you format a drive, you can recover data to a degree. However, if you format the drive and then write over it (like reinstall your OS, etc), the data recovery becomes increasingly difficult and much much much less likely.
So, if these so-called techs from HP erased the drive and then reinstalled the OS from the recovery cd, there is very little chance any of your old data is recoverable.
You can send your drive to recovery specialists, but they usually require $500 or more just to look at the drive.
So, yeah..to reiterate the moral of the story: back up early and back up often
@PinkBox: I don't see why. I could be wrong and they could be really unreasonable, but you generally don't even need to open the whole case to remove the hard drive. Plus, it would be idiotic for any computer company to "void warranties" over even opening the whole case. They have modular parts that are easily upgradable, so I can't imagine why they would demand you send it in for every little thing in order to keep your warranty.
@MissPeacock: & at that point, i would travel to the closest hp laptop retailer with a pen knife in hand. problem solved.
@HogwartsAlum: I can think of lots of reasons. One, knowing customers, a small percentage will be upset and claim that "they messed up my computer! It doesn't run right like it did before," and cause problems. Two, if there is anysort of virus, trojan, spyware or potentially unwanted program on there, you can always claim it came from their system and try to sue them. Three, they have seen the stories about computer technicians stealing private files from the computers they service and want to cut that off at the pass.
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I agree with keeping the hard drive when it's not a software-related problem. If the hardware fix requires new drivers, they can send them with the repair.
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I don't want to rag on the OP, but you should have backups of your important files even when you aren't sending it in. External drives are cheap. And there are a few free solutions on the web. Personally, I really like Mozy. It's automatic, encrypted and free for a couple gigs of important files.
@WilmerSlug: My friend is in middle management at HP and he tells me horror stories all the time. The company just doesn't allocate their resources properly. Its too big.
@TrueBlue63: How in the hell could a broken "P" key corrupt the OS or BIOS? There's no clear or logical reason why a computer technician would format/reinstall for a key replacement. Even an entire laptop keyboard replacement can be done without reinstalling the OS.
There's nothing here, no evidence, that this is an Official Policy of HP's. Why is The Consumerist espousing that conclusion?
@HogwartsAlum: well, they may do it to reduce their exposure to liability for data harvesting by unscrupulous employees (e.g. -> best buy porn) - that would make sense.
HP SUCKS!
The company I work for recently switched from Dell to HP.
I really didn't think HP could be worse in reliability and support than Dell. Boy, was I wrong.
The nc6400's that we have are pure shit. The LCD is the worst that I have EVER seen. There are constant complaints about the LCD quality and about the laptop quality in general.
I also work on a newer HP supercomputer and I'm learning to hate HP-UX and HP in general. Way more problems with HP-UX and the HP hardware than I ever had with Solaris and Sun hardware.
@gnuman: THANK YOU! I've been reading these comments waiting for someone to have a reasonable response. People don't seem to realize that hard drives can break at any time, or a virus can strike that could warrant the need for an OS install. Obviously, it's so much easier to fix if you spend the $100 on an external drive and just do regular backups. There are programs that will basically do it for you (Time Machine on mac for one, I'm willing to be there's a windows equivalent).
I agree that HP probably had no reason to format the drive, but at the same time, it's entirely his responsibility to ensure his data is safe (and to keep track of his product keys). If you don't take the time to back it up, then it better be something you can lose.
Please always back up your data. We sent our laptop to HP to have the CD drive replaced. They ended up declaring that the cost to replace the drive was more than the cost of replacing it. So they kept our laptop. Needless to say, we took our business elsewhere- to Apple, in fact.
We did end up fighting with HP and Best Buy and got our old laptop back in our possession long enough to recover our data, but, lesson learned.
Try PhotoRec. It's GPL'd Free Software and it works very very well.
It's typically used for memory cards but it'll work on Hard Disks too.
I think this story is a valid complaint, but I have to ask, what was the OP thinking, sending a computer off for repair and not backing up their important data?
There are so many bad things that could happen to your computer when out of your possession, such as...
-- tech unexpectedly reformats your hard drive (as in this story)
-- hard drive gets damaged in shipment
-- computer gets lost in shipment
-- computer gets stolen
-- governor of Illinois appoints you to the senate in exchange for your computer
-- etc. etc. etc.
If you're shipping it, back it up first!
@jchabotte: I agree, look into GetDataBack for NTFS (runtime.org). DiskInternals NTFS Recovery (diskinternals.com) and Easy Recovery pro (ontrackdatarecovery.com). There are a number of open source data recovery programs (most free) as well, but do your researching on another computer. Lifehacker.com features a number of data recovery programs, just search for it.
am a huge HP fan.... but seriously, they have the worst customer service ever...they should work on that.