PC Repair store installed Clonezilla??? Bloatware -

imsati said:
How can they possible deny it? --you have their CD! If they give you a hard time, call BBB and MS, and let them KNOW you're doing both. I'd be on the phone with MS before I got back to my car in the parking lot :)
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I don't get it...what would calling MS do? What could they do about it? Does MS even have any support people that know what they're talking about?

From my experience with MS you're basically calling India and (while dialing) hoping you'll get one that speaks English.
 
Jus tel dem dat you hav instal vesta on one comput.

Lol, from my experience with ms's support.

On topic:
There's probably an option to be referred to a hotline for fraud like that.
 
Let us know how everything turns out. Im curious how they react when you go talk to them.

Edit: Also... they illegally copied software... you could probably threaten them even more with that too. Threaten to go to the writers of that software. I think someone mentioned that earlier.
 
I don't put up with junk like this, since we have a good-size family business, we have a lawyer to take care of us... I would contact my lawyer and ask for advice, I wouldn't even set foot in their office, I would just have the county police deliver a court date to them. What all types of software do you have? If Adobe, I would contact Adobe, you catch my drift? These guys are idiots, if they wanted it this bad they could've used an easier method... Bad Business Ethics, I would find a black list for the San Diego area...

Is this them?
http://geomarcomputers.com/index.html And they had their website designed by someone else, WOW! That beats anything I have seen... I would not EVER go to them for anything...
 
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Dude, I would be in orbit by now. I don't know about you guys, but when somebody messes with my stuff, it's not good. I would go back to the guys that tried to fix it and ask for a full refund, or a even new laptop, then take them to court if they refuse. I pretty sure it is a federal crime to clone someone's HDD and take personal information.
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I hate it when people act like this. I can't stand it! I worked for a computer retail store that did service and sales to both consumers and companies. I worked on the service side. Every time someone didn't grasp what we offered they barked up a storm and demanded free stuff. I seriously can not stand people that think they are owed so much for basically nothing. I could go on and on and give countless examples, but I will refrain from that.

At my job several years ago, we did a back up service by default if we were sending in your laptop for repair. This is because Sony, HP, Dell, whatever, automatically wipes the drive with out customer consent. Also, if we have to do any major hardware work, we would clone the drive just in case. So, when it was repaired we could clone it back, just in case. We also always gave them the only DVD(s) of their system to them. Its not like we kept, or even gave a crap about the data on there. We did it as a customer service. It was written, in clear plain text, on the service contract you signed to have your equipment checked in with us. That is why I urged every client of mine to fully read the contract they are agreeing to, to allow us to work on their computer equipment. It clearly stated, that a cloned back up of your drive may be done to try to ensure your data is not lost. If we lose your data, we are not responsible, and then it went on to other thing you are agreeing to as well.

I almost guarantee that is the case, and that is why you have the image. They probably had to ship it out for repair, and they are well aware of how often companies just wipe drives when they get the laptops in. Google search it, and see how many people have sent their laptops in for repair and gotten back totally restored to the factory image. A lot of places don't allow in warranty work locally, because its cheaper for them to repair it at one of their repair centers. Which is why laptops get shipped out a lot.

Furthermore, I have actually used Clonezilla and DRBL before, have any of you? It is not just an imaging tool. You set up a DRBL server, which acts as a DHCP server and a PXE boot server. You netboot (PXE Boot) the client into the server and it pulls down a boot loader image of GRUB. From there you can customize the GRUB menu to load anything you want, and it runs network installable images. You also have the choice of creating a new master image, or reimage a computer. You can also pull down live distros of Linux over the network, or run diagnostic images like memtest x86 from PXE boot. So, they may have been using the clonezilla client in a different way than just imaging the computer. I would ask what they did with it, and don't be a jerk about it, just ask and be cool. They will tell you what they did and why.

My guess is they probably have a netboot diagnostic image that runs HD test and memtest x86 and a few other free open source testing applications. That way they never need to boot off a CD to run that stuff. They just jack your computer into their small network, netboot it, run diagnostics, rinse wash and repeat. Do you know how much money that saves the IT departments? Using a cheap PC as a DRBL server and then all open source software? They wouldn't have to purchase commercial licenses for any software, so it would save them thousands of dollars. I can't recall how much an enterprise site license is for ghost but its well over 50k just to give you an idea. I think it would be not only smart but innovative to deploy this technology at your work to save all kinds of money, and not have to burn a ton of diagnostic CDs.

Now if for some reason your NIC doesn't support PXE booting, or they aren't running DHCP on their DRBL system, which you really only want one system handing out DHCP, you can also boot from a clonezilla CD. This will load a small iso of linux and boot it to the server that way as well. Or, most likely, your NIC isn't fully supported in Linux driver wise and you have to use the CD. Trust me, I used DRBL for like a year at my old job and tried to make it into a massive imaging solution. In the end it didn't work with our infrastructure so I had to scrap the idea.
 
Ok, thats kinda what there saying, They backed up my system. But I still don't know why everything was changed (start menu, desktop items, some Virus crap when I already had bitdefender). Seemed pretty messed with to me. Still don't like my personal info out there at all.
 
I'm going to have to agree with tlarkin...I think everyone is overacting (unless of course the contract didn't specify that they would clone your hdd).
 
I still don't see why fixing a monitor has to do with cloning a hard drive, or whatever reason they were using clonezilla for. it seems completely unnecessary. its like going to the dentist for a filling to fix a cavity and them doing a root canal. maybe not as drastic as that... but you get the idea.
 
It seems completely legit that they would clone your hd. If they were repairing it and screwed something up, they would not want to be held accountable for losing all of your information as well. Did you try calling them and asking them WHY the cd was there? I assume they could have answered it quickly. Just to be safe, ask for a copy of the contract you signed and see if it mentions cloning your drive anywhere.
 
Platinum said:
I still don't see why fixing a monitor has to do with cloning a hard drive, or whatever reason they were using clonezilla for. it seems completely unnecessary. its like going to the dentist for a filling to fix a cavity and them doing a root canal. maybe not as drastic as that... but you get the idea.
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That is because most cosmetic repairs have to be shipped out to the manufacturer under warranty. If you ship it out, the manufacturer is known to wipe the drives to eliminate all software problems that the machine could possibly have. That is why a lot of companies do that because they know when they ship it out, it very well could end up being wiped.
 
I was in a computer store yesterday and over heard a clerk talking to a tech.

Seems a customer called and was really pissed.Had his computer in this guys shop for a tune up because it would not boot up..Shop tells them his HD is dead and they cant fix it,,gonna need data recovery and a new hd..

Reading between the lines,,it sounds like the customer declined new HD and picked up his machine.Customer then goes and pays 1k for data recovery for his drive only to find out its NOT HIS HD in the computer.

From what I could tell of the broken english,,it sounds like the tech could have fixed the issues the customer had with his computer and tried to hijack the guy into buying a new HD with a fresh install which meant quick turn around and high profits for the shop.When the guy declined,,,the tech slipped a known bad HD in the customers
machine and kept the good one.Probably formatted it and sold it to someone else.

This shop has also been known to steal memory from computers.Customers take a slow aging computer in that has some bottle necks,,,shop fixes the bottle necks but robs a memory stick,but customer is happy because it runs so much better than before.Only reason I ever go there is if I need to look for a part for a old computer.He has all sorts of dead stuff laying around.

Moral of this story is

Know whats inside your computer before you take it just anywhere.Mark it with a felt pen or something.
 
camel lips said:
I was in a computer store yesterday and over heard a clerk talking to a tech.

Seems a customer called and was really pissed.Had his computer in this guys shop for a tune up because it would not boot up..Shop tells them his HD is dead and they cant fix it,,gonna need data recovery and a new hd..

Reading between the lines,,it sounds like the customer declined new HD and picked up his machine.Customer then goes and pays 1k for data recovery for his drive only to find out its NOT HIS HD in the computer.

From what I could tell of the broken english,,it sounds like the tech could have fixed the issues the customer had with his computer and tried to hijack the guy into buying a new HD with a fresh install which meant quick turn around and high profits for the shop.When the guy declined,,,the tech slipped a known bad HD in the customers
machine and kept the good one.Probably formatted it and sold it to someone else.

This shop has also been known to steal memory from computers.Customers take a slow aging computer in that has some bottle necks,,,shop fixes the bottle necks but robs a memory stick,but customer is happy because it runs so much better than before.Only reason I ever go there is if I need to look for a part for a old computer.He has all sorts of dead stuff laying around.

Moral of this story is

Know whats inside your computer before you take it just anywhere.Mark it with a felt pen or something.
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this thread is old, start a new one friend
 
since you say the laptop fell, they might have copied the hdd data, so they could test the harddrive for damage. (suppose you would be pissed if all the data was gone, so I gues its a backup for them that they cant be made accountable for data loss)
 
camel lips said:
I was in a computer store yesterday and over heard a clerk talking to a tech.

Seems a customer called and was really pissed.Had his computer in this guys shop for a tune up because it would not boot up..Shop tells them his HD is dead and they cant fix it,,gonna need data recovery and a new hd..

Reading between the lines,,it sounds like the customer declined new HD and picked up his machine.Customer then goes and pays 1k for data recovery for his drive only to find out its NOT HIS HD in the computer.

From what I could tell of the broken english,,it sounds like the tech could have fixed the issues the customer had with his computer and tried to hijack the guy into buying a new HD with a fresh install which meant quick turn around and high profits for the shop.When the guy declined,,,the tech slipped a known bad HD in the customers
machine and kept the good one.Probably formatted it and sold it to someone else.

This shop has also been known to steal memory from computers.Customers take a slow aging computer in that has some bottle necks,,,shop fixes the bottle necks but robs a memory stick,but customer is happy because it runs so much better than before.Only reason I ever go there is if I need to look for a part for a old computer.He has all sorts of dead stuff laying around.

Moral of this story is

Know whats inside your computer before you take it just anywhere.Mark it with a felt pen or something.
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This makes me want to start a site for this type of stuff.... Like a blacklist
 
i dont think it matters.
under different circumstances people could have pointed you to this thread and told you to use the search function before posting new threads hahahahha.

why does hard drive data recovery cost so much?
 
Kuzba said:
i dont think it matters.
under different circumstances people could have pointed you to this thread and told you to use the search function before posting new threads hahahahha.

why does hard drive data recovery cost so much?
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I wonder myself and I am gonna start a thread... If I ever figure out how to do it, I am gonna get into that...
 
Kuzba said:
i dont think it matters.
under different circumstances people could have pointed you to this thread and told you to use the search function before posting new threads hahahahha.
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Ha,,your probably right,,seems like every forum you go to there is always someone telling you that you should have used the search function.Here I did and came up with this

bahwhahaha
 
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