[arrasleds]

I didn't quit, but I did go on to part-time hours which has staved off the inevitable walking tour of the building with a shotgun for a few more years.

Anyway.

[rant]
Is really so hard to grasp as a concept? If I say your PC needs to be wiped clean and reloaded, is it so hard to understand that that wipes the PC clean?

Apparently so, so rather than saying "We need to wipe your PC clean and reload it, meaning anything you haven't backed up will be lost" I had to start saying "We need to wipe and reload your PC. That means anything you haven't backed up externally will be lost. That means any pictures, documents, e-mails, movies, music or downloaded files and games will be lost. OK are you sure? This means EVERYTHING will be lost. EVERYTHING, no exceptions. OK?"

Apparently that isn't clear enough. So now virtually every *****ng time I reload somones PC, regardless of going through it 2 or 3 times, regardless of getting them to sign the Job Sheet stating they understand that all there data is lost, I will still get the call the day after the job:

"Where's my documents and pictures? You never told me you'd delete them!"

"I didn't think you meant MY data would be lost"

"You didn't say that it would affect my games!"

"You didn't tell me my internet settings would be lost!"

"I didn't think you meant the hard drive would be effected!"

[/rant]

I then visited www.notalwaysright.com and lost all faith in humanity.

[riverakathy]

Short of a hard disk failure, why wouldnt you be able to back up their data first?

[affewheillMapew]

you shouldnt blame all of society for a few silly people.
________
AMC Computerized Engine Control

[ErubTiereedig]

OMG hexus, thanks for tehi link at teh bottom. i remember situations liek this. lol and am lolling liek mad

[arrasleds]

Short of a hard disk failure, why wouldnt you be able to back up their data first?

We did used to, but regardless of how thorough you are people always forget to mention something vitally important that they want saving. When that happens we would get abusive phonecalls and general unpleasantness.

When we did I'd always point out to people that "I don't use your PC, so I don't know what's important and what's not. I can only backup what I think looks important and what you tell me to."

We also wouldn't backup illegally downloaded music, films or games for obvious reasons. This often however would result in nasty calls from customers after the fact because all the films they had downloaded and were selling at car boot sales were gone. One of the directors actually had a guy follow him home one night and threaten him if he didn't give him copies of the movies he'd lost.

Basically the directors decided that for the minor charge we were imposing for data backup and all the **** we were getting we'd just stop backing data up all together. You aint saved it, you've lost it.

[Abarricoss]

Short of a hard disk failure, why wouldnt you be able to back up their data first?

Yup ppl hide their documents in some pretty obscure places, and you'l never be right wahtever you do. the best option is to say everything will be lost and you should do a backup. If I ask "what do you want me to back up?" you'll enevitably get "everything" or "all my documents" (meainig everything, not the my documents folder)

It doesnt matter how simple you make things, youl always ecounter somebody more simple.

[unishisse]

they don't know what "backup" means. i am serious.

[Mappaindy]

This issue will NEVER go away. 2 Choices really...

1. Offer a back up service at additional cost. Simply do a c:/ copy to a folder called back up in the new local drive and let them find it.

2. Carry on asking them to make backups and when they loose ****, just say "Sorry, We did tell you"

[OwdBKKHO]

Possibly thinking about something from their P*** collection ...

[invest7manager]

This drives me nuts, pretty hard to back up a customers data when your sitting on their living room floor and you only get 23 minutes per job.

cmr's PC won't boot, tell em this will have to be restored but you are going to lose your data,

What all of it

Yes this will wipe your PC and take it back to it's factory settings.

What about emails.

Yup, unless you use an online service

what and my pictures

Yup, everything

what about my music

Yup, everything will be gone

what, and games

"Oh ffs" yes it's all gonna be wiped

So how do I get them back then.

I also loved the link, "won't that just make a capital 2" [rofl][rofl]

[BEKREUNSEPBERw]

Again, I must be lucky cause I've never had a problem explaining to people that their data will be gone. I usually just say, "When you get it back with will be like when you first bought it, is there anything you want me to save before hand." The only thing i tell them i CANT backup are programs, (usually office/quickbooks) but just the data.

Haven't had a complaint yet. Going on 5 years.

/crosses fingers

[Mynameishappy]

Again, I must be lucky cause I've never had a problem explaining to people that their data will be gone. I usually just say, "When you get it back with will be like when you first bought it, is there anything you want me to save before hand." The only thing i tell them i CANT backup are programs, (usually office/quickbooks) but just the data.

Haven't had a complaint yet. Going on 5 years.

/crosses fingers

You are SO going to have a sh*t Monday [rofl]

[disappointment2]

OMG hexus, thanks for tehi link at teh bottom. i remember situations liek this. lol and am lolling liek mad

Just curious, do you always purposely misspell "like" and "the". It seems that nearly 100% of your posts have these misspellings.

[cookiemonster]

OMG hexus, thanks for tehi link at teh bottom. i remember situations liek this. lol and am lolling liek mad

Are you drunk?

[asivisepo]

When I did bench work I always made a ghost of the system. If they complained after a machine was wiped I could pull anything from the image and burn it to a disc or restore the image to how they had their PC when they first brought it in.

[Anamehuskeene]

Just curious, do you always purposely misspell "like" and "the". It seems that nearly 100% of your posts have these misspellings.

I think he had a really bad, disgustingly dirty keyboard and decided one day to clean it, so he took of all the keys and bunged them in a bucket of detergent for a day, dried them all off when they were clean, put them back onto the keyboard, forgetting he didn't have another keyboard for reference, and some of the keys got mixed up, but now he can't be arsed changing them back, as it's too much trouble and he has way too little time in which to do it.




Or he might just be drunk! [rofl]

[Anamehuskeene]

When I did bench work I always made a ghost of the system. If they complained after a machine was wiped I could pull anything from the image and burn it to a disc or restore the image to how they had their PC when they first brought it in.

A ghost of a large drive could take hours.

[invest7manager]

A ghost of a large drive could take hours.

And cost the customer a bloody lot of money if charged by the hour

[asivisepo]

A ghost of a large drive could take hours.

Don't ghost a large drive. 95% of the PCs you would work on aren't going to be 100GB worth of data.

And cost the customer a bloody lot of money if charged by the hour

You don't charge people to do that, it's to cover your own ass. I would do the imaging while working on other machines. By the time I was ready to begin work on that machine, the image would be made. It was more of an insurance policy if anyone gave any kind of trouble later.

[invest7manager]

Don't ghost a large drive. 95% of the PCs you would work on aren't going to be 100GB worth of data.



You don't charge people to do that, it's to cover your own ass. I would do the imaging while working on other machines. By the time I was ready to begin work on that machine, the image would be made. It was more of an insurance policy if anyone gave any kind of trouble later.

You don't but others do, I had a customer that had paid £85 an hour for a backup that took 2 hours, and that was in a store not in home, I only work in home and wouldn't do a backup myself as it takes to long