Geek Squad at Best Buy - Lost all my data!!

[newlook 265]

Our business computer crashed last week. We have been hearing about how good the "Geek Squad" was at fixing computer systems and such so we thought we would take the unit in to have them (the experts) take a look at it.

I specifically requested for them to transfer all data over to the new 300 GB that they talked me into purchasing (I knew my old hard drive was full so a 300 GB purchase was a logical choice). All data meaning 5-6 years of contracts, budgets, Quickbooks, payroll data, payroll tax data, SSI data, Pictures of family vacations and etc. **oh they said our sound card was bad ~ so we needed a new one and don't forgot the new improved virus protector that your new hard drive would desperately need!!

Folks, did we ever get an eye full when my wife brought the computer back to the office yesterday. Not only did they NOT transfer any data whatsoever ~ they failed to reinstall any of the basic programs that were origianally on the computer. Programs such as Excel, Microsoft Word to name a few! New sound card doesn't produce any sound and I have things on my desktop that I never even heard of before!!

The wife went to the store today to inquire as to how such a mishap could happen. After speaking to three different people in that dept. that literally had no clue she finally was able to speak to the asst. mgr. The asst. mgr. admitted that it appeared that our computer was fixed rather quickly and that our original hard drive was corrupt. We explained that is why we brought the computer to them in the 1st place. Then the asst. mgr. did the unthinkable by telling us that their system was not equipped to retrieve data from corrupt hard drives BUT their sister company (no more than 5 miles away) could have fixed it. My wife literally went through the celing by this time after hearing this.

I am heading down there tomorrow with computer in hand and am giving them one more chance to come up with some answers that make sense to me. I am insulted that they want to credit me $99.00 after I have spent $700.00 with them and plus they lost 6 years of data which is priceless (I do have hard copies of my contracts).

I normally don't vent on the board but I tell you this one has me pretty upset. I most likely will be out of touch until this is resolved. Done venting!!!

[newlook 265]

I actually have Menieres Disease, which is a balance, equalibrium (sp?) disorder. Never knew I had it and then one night on a fire call I completely lost my balance while I was "packing up" (putting on breathing apparatus).

Had to say bye-bye to being a fireman. Anyway, I have had 2 surgies on the right ear with the last surgery being pretty intensive. Through the surgery the dr.'s were able to "control" the balance disorder but I lost my hearing in the right ear. That was about 7 years ago.

Just recently (about 9 months) I started experiencing the balance issue again. Went to the dr. and now I have Menieres on my left side. Not good cause they don't want to operate because I will lose my hearing all together. So ~ I am stuck. Experts don't know why people get Menieres nor is there any cure for it!!

[PLD 14]

As a 15yr IT veteran, this is truly the best advice most people ever get. Sadly, it is also the advice most often ignored.

Drive failure/data loss is not a matter of IF, it is a matter of WHEN. I would project that for most people, the risk of catastrophic data loss approaches 100% every 3-5 years.

Spend $99 on an external HDD, use it at least once a month, and keep it at your office or your sisters house. At the very least, keep it in a really good fire safe.

Philip

One other note on backing up - and you must do that as a minimum - get a copy off site. If you have your backup in the same place as the original data you are only slightly better off than not backing up at all. If there is a fire, storm, theft or other disaster you will still lose all your valuable information. Now, as I speak I have most of my data locally (thump on my head). However, I have some of my most important data stored on remote web site. There are secure options to do at least that. However anything more than several hundred megabytes is hard to manage that way.

Former computer guy who had to maintain data for my company (among other things).

Hope that the data recovery works - if they did any install or attempts themselves some data could have been overwritten or key portions of files damaged enough that they will not be useful.

[JOgden 1,003]

As a 15yr IT veteran, this is truly the best advice most people ever get. Sadly, it is also the advice most often ignored.

Drive failure/data loss is not a matter of IF, it is a matter of WHEN. I would project that for most people, the risk of catastrophic data loss approaches 100% every 3-5 years.

Spend $99 on an external HDD, use it at least once a month, and keep it at your office or your sisters house. At the very least, keep it in a really good fire safe.

Philip

I agree... If you work in an office with a few people that have critical data it may even be a good idea to either store all files on a NAS (Network attached storage) or use it as a backup. The reason why I suggested a NAS is because of its capability to connect directly to a network so your employees can't save data to it easily.

[RyanH 14]

We store all pertinent files in a shared folder that synchronizes constantly to the network, and the network drive gets two backups everyday and are archived for approximately 1 month. When I travel offsite I make sure all files are synchronized and when I return any changes are made to the server. I get a notice of all changed files so I can decide if they are relevant changes or something that has been damaged. I also make images of my hard drive and keep them stored on another drive in the event of a failure. Having drive image backups is a VERY good idea and makes things very easy to recover. You can make an image every night automatically. It's best to ignore temporary directory like internet cache files, etc.

[Jon 533]

Jon Fife says "LOL, what is it with DEAF powerwashers?? I swear, I believe there are five deaf guys on TGS doing PW.

Jon one plus is the noise from all the equipment running, pressure washer, burner, generator etc. sounds normal and not LOUD to us.

Besides we are not deaf, just hard of hearing so speak up please:)

--------------------

As for backing up data I use an external hard drive for all my backups.

I don't keep it on or connected but only connect and turn on when backing up.

[newlook 265]

All the data was lost due to a corrupt hard drive. A major chapter of our business was lost due to our lack of backing up the data.

Time to move on!!