That Monday feeling...
 

Let me just add quickly, that when this girl picked up her laptop, I told her that her info was in a folder on her desktop called "Backup"...

Me: Can I help you?

C: Yes, I picked up my laptop from you like 10 minutes ago, and you like told me you'd like backed up all you photos?

Me: Yes, there's a folder on your desktop called "backup" all your data is in there.

C: I've been in to like Mydocuments and there's nothing there! I told you to backup my data!

Me: Have you checked the folder on your desktop?

C: What folder? I can see my pictures and my music but there's nothing in it!

Me: Close everything down for me, go back to your initial desktop screen ok?

C: OK

Me: Right, on the left hand side bellow the Recycle bin you have 2 folders. Free utils and Backup, correct?

C: Erm.. yeah.

Me: OK, right mouse click on backup and select properties. Can you tell me the size of that folder please?

C: OK... it like says 4.56 Gee Bees?

Me: OK, your data is in there then. Open that folder for me please.

C: OK..

Me: You should see "My Pictures"?

C: Yeah...

Me: Open "My Pictures".

C: It's empty! There's only like the flowers and stuff!

Me: Click back at the top please.

C: K...

Me: What folders can you see?

C: My network places, erm My Documents, My Pictures, Shared Documents, Control Panel...

Me: Are you looking at the folders in the left hand bar?

C: Yeah?

Me: Have you tried clicking on the big folder that says "My Pictures"? The one right in the middle of your screen?

C: No?

Me: Could you click on that please?

C: OK... Oh, I see my stuff now.... Why did you make this so complicated!!!

Me: http://www.karmaslave.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/facepalm.gif

Why didn't you just save yourself the hassle and put stuff back in the folders she left it?

Because she'd originally got a scattergun of folders spread across 2 partitions, multiple folders on desktop/mydocs aswell as several old backups she didn't want to lose. I dropped everything into one folder and put it on the desktop to, so I thought, make life easier...

This is why I could never officially work as tech support.

In my spare time to make some extra money, i build/sell and fix peoples PCs, and wow some people are beyond stupid and they always blame it on me.

Regardless of how messy it looks to you or me, it's a system that works for her and she is used to it. I'm not having a go, but you changed her setup without asking her and she doesn't like it. She's entitled to be annoyed.

We don't backup peoples data here as a policy (long story). The system needed a reload because it was stuffed with virus's and hijacks. She got hysterical about losing her data, so I said I'd try and back up what I can. She gave me a rough list of folders and I pulled off what I could, stuck it in a backup file and saved it.

Alternatively I could have just said "Well that's hard luck, it's all going to be wiped."

I don't know how you can do it professionally. I was doing some repair work (non computer related) in a computer shop and I couldn't believe just haw clueless people can really be. I'm totally against working on friends and families computers anymore. When they ask me something, my answer is "Where did you buy it? Call them."

So I'm working away and outside the workshop I hear this cat making a hell of a racket, like it's in distress. I open the back door and sure enough, the ginger tom from upstairs is outside. He wanders over and starts rubbing against my leg, all friendly like, I lean down saying "what's all the fuss about mate?" Go to give him a stroke and the little **** just claws the **** out of my hand and runs off. He acrually drew blood.

Next time I see it I'm booting his ass across the car-park.

I get that all the time with my clients....they have stuff all over the ****ing palce and then complain that I havnt backed up the photo folder that they have for some reason placed in the program files.

this is what should have happened in the first place

I don't know where I got the impression that restoring a backup was the job you were doing. My apologies for being a ****.

Yeah, it's fun when people do that. I had one user that kept all his read email filed in deleted items. Which was just asking for trouble... http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/blink1.gif

There are people at my work who have multiple nested (I mean forty or so) folders in their deleted items as an actual file system [surrender]

lol, when I do a backup of a customer system and have to put everything onto a new drive and reinstall Windows on there cause the old drive is failing I always put it back where the customer had it originally.

Some people go nuts if their icons are moved to a different area of the desktop too. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/laugh1.gif

Once I set a folder to 'view Details' and the customer got mad, I had to tell them over the phone how to put thumbnails back. [rolleyes]

Reminds me of the idiots students* who would save their work on the "C" drive of the PC they were using, rather than a storage drive, like they were supposed to - you'd see them queueing to use 'their' PC.
Best thing, though, was that IT would regularly format and re-install on the PCs - the fuss they'd make when their work wasn't there... Even better than when people would save a term's work on a single, well used, floppy - and then be unable to retreive it!

*Most were Business Computing, or similar, students who REALLY should have known better!

I tend to back their stuff up to DVD, show them the nice clean system and when they ask where all their files are, hand them the disk(s) and just tell them it's all on there. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/wink1.gif

For the last ****ing time.... Not understanding something doesn't make you an idiot. If there was more than one student doing the same thing then their tutor / instruction manual wasn't doing it's / their job properly.

Yes it does. Especially something so basic at this point it should be general knowledge.

If normal users are allowed to save to the C: drive, IT isn't doing their job.