Bank transfer, to another country. I haven't contacted them yet, but I'm going to have to. I've had long enough of a day without this and I need to sort out what I need to say about this.
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Acer support a couple of years ago let everything be. I just didn't think this would happen in this case. Bunch a fucking clowns.
Are there even any laptop manufacturers that care about product quality and customer happiness?
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I also recently sent my laptop to Acer support but in the application form the explicitly said, that I should make a backup just in case data is lost
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I have never sent my computers away. There is this Mac repair shop in an industrial estate near Dublin that I will happily drive to because each and every time, they've done a fantastic job. They're an independent business, but have official mac repair status. A colleague recommended them to me years ago, and I've never gone anywhere else since. The brand named places are not always best regardless of what the gadget is.
if I were you, I'd find a really good local computer repair shop and use them instead, especially if your laptop is out of warranty. It's not worth the hassle and the tears. The local guys will want to keep you happy and coming back to them, so less chance of mess ups.
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Sad, 3 days ago my niece spilled tea on laptop, 12 years photos and videos disappeared.
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I'm so sorry about that. Luckily I don't save personal pics on my computers. Many things I worked on are gone though, only because of a shitty company.
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is the data on a hard drive? a few methods for saving data from them
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HDD is not detected on PC, I will try to find good data recovery service.
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when all fails, and i mean ALL!!! always the freezer method. need to know what your doing tho
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it works when a hard drive is scratched so bad it wont spin up, i shit you not!!!! last resort tho
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I guess you tried to plug it in another PC and saw it's not detected at all ? In this case a recovery service is the only way to go, but it can be very, very expensive.
One thing may be worth trying: depending on your harddrive model, you may be able to buy a new one of the exact same model (a used model may be better, as the seller will be able to find the exact model / version / revision, so you can see if it matches yours). If you can get your hands on another same drive, you can try to take the electronic card on top of the disk, from the new one to the broken one. Since your problems came from water on the device, there are strong odds that some electronic part died in some short-circuit, while, if you are lucky, leaving the internal device in correct state.
Many data recovery services work that way, they keep many generic models electronic cards, and leave the super-expensive process of getting to white chamber (some kind of laboratory where they open the disk and try to access the data directly with dedicated hardware) for the cases when it doesn't work.
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I'm very sorry to read about this horrible repair. I wouldn't trust one of these companies with a repair on a lego brick. It is surely no consolation in your case but you could learn about the importance of keeping backups of data you deem important. I can recommend Macrium Reflect it's free for personal use if you jump through a few hoops.
Maybe you know someone with experience in data recovery the original data could still be there.
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The factory reset is pretty usual, it's to test problems and also for the safety of both the comparny and yours. This is the case of " Now you know "
Has for the 2nd point that was really shitty service and I had something similiar happen to me. Best thing to do next time is to search for local tech shops, some have partnerships with brands ( I actually worked for one that was with Asus ) which is a bit less of a headache then sending your laptop to god knows where, not knowing when it gets fixed ( or even being capable to get updates) or even get a "ransom" when you dont want their stupid expensive fix.
With that said hope you can figure something out. Best of luck.
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Yep, ASUS are known for two things: Good hardware, and terrible support.
Even if that wasn't the case though, you should never EVER send away your computer for repair without first backing up your data! In fact I'd recommend backing it up and reformatting the original drive yourself before sending it out.
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Maybe not good hardware... I actually have no clue why the screen cracked to begin with. It's like the crack suddenly appeared, which I know sounds like bullshit but that's what happened. And then the "repaired" computer arrived with another crack :/ Other products might be better, but I'm never gonna buy anything ASUS again.
It's so stupid, but I never found a "good" system for backing up my files. I'm just very anal about software companies using my data and pressuring me to use their services or something. Also why I'm pissed that ASUS forced an install with their software shit and McAfee on in. An external storage would probably be for me.
I'm going to look more into file recovery, and then think about if this is the opportunity I have to flee to Linux.
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I am very sorry. That fucking sucks. Call inmediately to ASUS support, and trying to be as nice as possible(yeah, I know, fucking jackasses) explain the problem and demand a solution.
Go as soon as possible to a local repair shop and explain the situation. Maybe they will be able to recover it
And I am sorry. That sucks so much, I'm definitely never sending any of my stuff to ASUS (or anything) at least without backing up all my data. Even then, better not.
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I think it's still possible to recover your files, at least most of them (unless they replaced your harddisk). I recommend using Seagate File Recovery, which is the best from what I've used before. Though you'll need an equal or bigger external harddisk for the recovered files. If you need more info, I'm happy to help.
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I installed what I think is their trial version and did a scan. It's easy software to use, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. It only finds files from before I bought my computer, the 14th of April (is this when the "crime" was committed lol) and when I booted it up yesterday. Does that mean it's gone or is my stuff hidden deeper?
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Wait, how old is your laptop? Even in worst case scenario, it should've found breadcrumbs of your files. If there is nothing that means two things: Either they replaced your harddisk or they permanently wiped your harddisk which is a very long process and a very asshole thing to do because you cannot recover files from that. If the all dates suggest 14.04.2022 there and nothing older, sorry about your files. :(
If they replaced it, maybe you can ask to get old one back. If they perma-wiped, sadly there is nothing to do.
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The only "older" stuff is from 2020 and 2019, which is before I got the computer. Absolutely nothing in the interval that I used it.
But it seems crazy that they did a perma-wipe, or replaced it completely. The reparation report only states that they replaced the screen.
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It seems like they perma-wiped and restored a factory backup externally, which is a pretty weird thing to do.
Also, it's less likely but if Asus factory reset works with complete erasure instead of quick format, current situation might've been happened because of that, which is unfortunate.
Otherwise, a recovery software would've found at least some of your files if not all.
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Jesus fucking Christ. Fuck me I guess. €350 poorer, data lost, and a still broken laptop. Fun times.
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It seems like they perma-wiped and restored a factory backup externally, which is a pretty weird thing to do.
Not necessarily, if the laptop had an SSD the TRIM function would just make recovery impossibile shortly after they're deleted.
I've tried this recently with a friend of mine who deleted folders and nothing was found with any recovery utility.
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SSDs are really easy to format.
You can just set every single bit to a random 1/0 and that's it. No need to spin around for each chunk where data can be saved, no need to find everything and the exact place. You just "wipe" it all in a few minutes.
There are rumors that you can kind of check some leftovers with really accurate tools, but I haven't seen any proof of that being a thing... And even if it is it would cost more fortunes than someone can afford. Unless you're a HUGE company, you won't be able to do it.
On HDDs, the expensive hardware-based solutions check for any magnetization left on the plate and give you anything that looks like chunks of files.
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Then besides the lifespan, there is also this reason to prefer HDDs as storage over SSDs. Didn't even know about TRIM until the comment above. If it's so easy to write all over in a short time, it's probably close to impossible to recover leftover data from SSDs. On the contrary it's a good thing from a privacy aspect.
On HDDs, the expensive hardware-based solutions check for any magnetization left on the plate and give you anything that looks like chunks of files.
Yeah I heard that it's even possible to recover from trashed down HDDs which three-letter agencies use I reckon.
I still use HDDs as storage and I guess when choosing laptops it's better to go with SSD+HDD solutions it seems, instead of full SSD.
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Yeah, that is quite shitty indeed. Like others have mentioned, it is always a good idea to back up your data. I learned that lesson the hard way myself years ago. I keep backups on multiple drives now, just in case one of my backup drives fail (which was another lesson I learned the hard way. So many pictures, documents, music, and software lost....)
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If you trust cloud providers with your data, I would recommend doing that instead. That way you can be 110% sure that you won't lose anything.
Also, if you do backups only every few months, you don't have to pay for the subscription. Just buy as much space as you need once, upload everything and cancel it until you have to upload something again. Unless there will be a policy change in the future, they won't delete any files just because you're not paying.
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That all depends on what your needs are. I do back up some things to cloud storage, but I keep local backups as well. Also, when you start talking multiple TB worth of data, relying entirely on cloud services isn't always practical. And while it is rather rare for cloud services to completely lose data, saying you can be "110% sure that you won't lose anything" is stretching things at best. Cloud services can and do permanently lose data due to accidents, breaches, and other events beyond their control (just ask Google what happened to their Belgian cloud servers during a lightning storm some years back). Unlikely, I know, but I've been burned enough times by online services over the years to not put my full trust in any company.
I'm not at all against cloud storage, mind you. I just don't buy into the mindset that it is infallible and should replace local storage altogether. But then again, I'm a bit of a curmudgeon and don't like other people touching my stuff to begin with, so take that as you will.....
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The thing that makes cloud services safer is that everything is saved in multiple places. Also, they can't really afford to lose any data. Depending on how important it is (and mind you, some companies use the exact same servers as well), they could get sued for tons of money. Sure, one server could fail and some stuff might be temporarily inaccessible, but it should never just cease to exist completely
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Well that sucks. I believe it's standard practice to nuke all the data when you send something for official tech support, it's sad that you lost all your stuff but you should take precautions next time, specially because there's a myriad of ways to lose access to the data on a PC (like when they get stolen).
About them sending it back broken after you paid for repair that's unforgivable, it's kinda surprising than that's even legal.
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Ouch, that really sucks.
Highly recommend everyone who has anything on their PC they dont want to loose forever; get an external hard drive.
It's saved me from loosing everything before. Anything vaguely important is backed up on it. And really important stuff like art/photos gets a third copy on USB sticks (might even leave some with a family member in case of a fire).
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Don't forget the cloud option e.g. Mega is offering 20 GB free storage. Agreed it might not be enough for your Steam library but for important stuff secured with a strong encryption key it's the ideal solution as you can access the data from wherever you are.
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Fuckin' hell! That's horrible support. If you can find a good freelance repair store that offers data recovery you should give that a try so you can hopefully get your files back. Also, contact Asus again, they don't deserve to get your money after what they did!
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i know it's too late now but i will say it anyway:
this is why you need backups. especially when you give your hardware out of your hands.
i have used macrium reflect (free for private use) for years and it never disappointed me.
if your life depends on the data you can send the drive to a professional recovery company but that is going to cost you quite a bit.
but for that to work you need to stop using the device right now to prevent further data loss.
at the same time it could very well be that they replaced the hard drive with a new one and your old data isn't even on that drive in your laptop anyway.
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+1 for Macrium free version, it also lets you mount the backup image and browse or even boot the backup as a VM. Though the UI is not super intuitive and it can be overwhelming for someone who wants a one-click solution. But once you have it set up right you basically don't have to think about it anymore.
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Sorry you lost all your data. The support drones follow a script, no matter what, and yes that means even if their eyes can clearly see a cracked screen, the first step is "factory reset".
My gf's laptop also had a broken screen. She didn't even think of making a backup of her most recent data since... 1) she couldn't see anything on her screen and 2) it was a broken screen.
Laptop came back nuked to factory default and she had lost all the pictures she took while on a 3 weeks photography trek through India.
Imagine having such a mindless job that your brain doesn't even compute the difference between a software problem and a hardware problem and you just follow steps like a machine...
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Don't think of them as monkeys. They're just following a script so they can save time. I am 100% sure that most people that work in tech support in bigger European countries know more about computer hardware than most people that use this website.
The script is there to save time and also to make sure that you can troubleshoot stuff later
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The script is there to save time and also to make sure that you can troubleshoot stuff later
Starting by a full software reset when the screen is cracked is dumb, no matter what the script says.
And the fact they know more about hardware than most people only makes the mindless following of a script worse.
I hardly know anything about hardware, I'm the first one to admit it and the little I picked up was on the fly when I do have problems I'd rather solve myself than send my laptop to be destroyed by a script automaton.
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EDITED: I wrote this 2 years ago, I am 1 year into a new relationship with Lenovo Legion which is going well. Still, fuck ASUS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pMrssIrKcY
Original post:
I shipped my laptop to ASUS a couple weeks ago to fix a cracked screen. They billed me €350 for it, and I just paid it because they wanted €100 just to send it back unrepaired.
Now I got my computer back and I find that they
I've cried for 2 hours now and tried to find a solution for file recovery after a factory reset but it looks like everything is gone. I paid ASUS to do nothing to help and they nuked all my data.
I shouldve never sent it in. Thanks for reading.
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