Why Oh Why,

[Crossy]

A minor rant, I've not lost anything other than time

Just got my Acer Aspire-1 back from Acer Service (Rangsit). It had a failed main-board (nice smell of burnt electronics, probably a PSU problem).

Service record shows main board replaced, BIOS updated, Windows re-installed.

When asked about the un-necessary re-install (the drive wasn't damaged or they would have changed it too) the nice lady said "we always re-install Windows". She didn't actually know WHY they do it just that they always do.

Now I have to spend time re-installing all my software (the failure occured before I could do a ShadowProtect image)

I feel better now

[cdnvic]

"Re-install Windows" is a simple minded tech support mantra that leads to a lot of unnecessary grief.

[thaimite]

"Re-install Windows" is a simple minded tech support mantra that leads to a lot of unnecessary grief.

A re-instal of windows is standard practice by most service departments as it means your software is not going to give them any problems. They do not care about your lost data or grief.

A tip I read many years ago is to buy your new PC with the smallest drive available. As soon as you get home, remove the small drive and replace it with a larger capacity drive and put all your own software on it.

Store the original drive with the pre-installed software somewhere safe.

In the event of a failure replace the supplied rive, before sending the unit for repair. and then you do not care what the service company does to it, your data is safe on your own disk. This also means that if your PC works with the original drive before the repair then it is a software issue and a differnet course of action may be better to fix your PC

This tip may be a little bit expensive, but piece of mind is worth a lot.

[verydumbubba]

Always remove the HDD - keep all your data on another partition - C:\ will always fail first - its boot.

They probably experienced BSD - a M$ norm, even before any swap outs. Ergo the reinstall.

Bubba

[webfact]

A minor rant, I've not lost anything other than time

Just got my Acer Aspire-1 back from Acer Service (Rangsit). It had a failed main-board (nice smell of burnt electronics, probably a PSU problem).

Service record shows main board replaced, BIOS updated, Windows re-installed.

When asked about the un-necessary re-install (the drive wasn't damaged or they would have changed it too) the nice lady said "we always re-install Windows". She didn't actually know WHY they do it just that they always do.

Now I have to spend time re-installing all my software (the failure occured before I could do a ShadowProtect image)

I feel better now

Yup, thats bad. I use that program myself and without that image you are p....d

I guess you do like I do and store the images on an external drive?

Edited July 11, 2009 by webfact

[fred2007]

Yes they always reinstall windows but it is always a fake one

[verydumbubba]

That must drive the Micro$oft Police crazy!! What a rush!! Blame it all on LOS

Bubba

Yes they always reinstall windows but it is always a fake one

[lopburi3]

"Re-install Windows" is a simple minded tech support mantra that leads to a lot of unnecessary grief.

A re-instal of windows is standard practice by most service departments as it means your software is not going to give them any problems. They do not care about your lost data or grief.

A tip I read many years ago is to buy your new PC with the smallest drive available. As soon as you get home, remove the small drive and replace it with a larger capacity drive and put all your own software on it.

Store the original drive with the pre-installed software somewhere safe.

In the event of a failure replace the supplied rive, before sending the unit for repair. and then you do not care what the service company does to it, your data is safe on your own disk. This also means that if your PC works with the original drive before the repair then it is a software issue and a differnet course of action may be better to fix your PC

This tip may be a little bit expensive, but piece of mind is worth a lot.

What do you do about the tamper sticker on ACER computers covering the drive door? Warranty void if opened.

[stumonster]

What do you do about the tamper sticker on ACER computers covering the drive door? Warranty void if opened.

I thought these stickers on easily user serviceable parts such as hard drive and ram had been proven in court not to interfere with warranty claims - Acer as an international company should know this.

I would be more worried about passwords , VPN certs , cookies stored on the hard drive .

[Crossy]

At leat I got a genuine windoze back (recovered from the recovery partition).

The drive in an Aspire-One is a dog to get at so removing it is not an option.

Oddly, someone seems to have tried to peel the windows serial sticker from the underside, only noticed when I got home so I couldn't query in the shop.

I keep my images on a RAID-5 NAS drive, nice and safe, but NBG if you've not done a backup, the dozy thing failed when I booted it from the Shadowprotect image to do a backup

[Tywais]

Just curious as to if there are any advantages of ShadowProtect over Acronis TrueImage which I use?

[webfact]

Just curious as to if there are any advantages of ShadowProtect over Acronis TrueImage which I use?

Shadow Protect 3.3 uses bare metal restore to other hardware and you can shrink the image. The HDD must not have the exact size.

This was one of the reasons why I switched a year ago. Never had problems ever since, with Acronis I faced some caused by the "Secure Zone"

http://www.storagecraft.com/

Not sure Acronis can do that except someone uses its expensive Enterprise Edition.

Below quoted from PC Magazine

BOTTOM LINE

This software provides the fastest and smoothest backups and restores of any drive-image utility on the market, and a Vista-based emergency disk guarantees compatibility with the widest range of backup hardware. ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 is the best such product and worth ten times its price in terms of peace of mind and flexibility.

PROS

Fast, reliable image backups to local and network drives. Easy restores, even to different hardware. Plentiful scheduling and security options. Can mount images in VMware Workstation or Microsoft Virtual PC.

My opinion as user (webfact): less bloated, more reliable and stable and backups/restores faster than Acronis

CONS

Can't back up specific groups of files.

Remark Webfact: no disadvantage for me. I always image entire hdd)

Edited July 11, 2009 by webfact

[Tywais]

PROS

Can mount images in VMware Workstation or Microsoft Virtual PC.

CONS

Can't back up specific groups of files.

Thanks for the feedback webfact. The VMware part appeals to me but the lack of backing up of specific groups of files would be an issue for me. Will look at it a little closer, perhaps try their demo.

[Crushdepth]

"Re-install Windows" is a simple minded tech support mantra that leads to a lot of unnecessary grief.

This was our last IT guy's number 2 solution to everything (number 1 was reboot). He would give you a pantip XP CD with the words 'this might not work, it's scratched'.

Finally, we fired him.

[AlexLah]

I must say I am very happy with the service from Acer.

My labtop was fried due to heavy rainstorm and I forgot to close my window before going to sleep.

So I brought it to Pathip but they could not fix it. Went to the main service center on Rama 3 and told lady the story.

She started filling in some forms and mentioned that I still had insurance on it, I did not know it came with one.

So she gave me insurance form and gave me some hints on the reason for damage so I filled in that my window blew open due to rainstorm and me not at home at the time.

Got new mainboard and battery all for free and fixed in less than a week.

And yes I did remove the harddisk before bringing as indeed most service centers will format even in my HC.

Service center have spare HD that they will use to test your PC when you removed yours.