After 2
weeks of not having a home computer due to a faulty laptop screen, caused by no
fault of our own, we are glad to have it back. However, since getting it back on
Wednesday, I have been devastated to discover that the last 12 months of photos
have been lost. Our final days in our old home, Vanuatu, Sydney, Gwinganna, purcashing our new home, Birthdays, Christimas, Toby's 1st day back at School and his lost front tooth. Not to mention all our special emails we had been keeping and
Danny's work information.
So far, in the
last 2 days, I have spent over 20 hours trying to retrieve what photos I can. I
called HP today, just to see if anything could be done, HP were extremely
unsympathetic, with the reminder that we signed a form that all data may be lost
when it is taken in for repair. Before putting the laptop in for the repair, we
went to great lengths to explain that as it was broken we are unable to back it
up. When arranging to get it fixed, we were assured during several phone calls,
they would do all they could to keep the photos etc. as they knew we could not
save them ourselves.
When we got the
laptop back, no information was given, other than a written report. But reading
the notes, an entire new hard drive was put in. When I rang the repair company
in Brisbane today, they told me that it is against privacy laws to back up our
data before replacing our hard drive, so they never do that.
I asked where the hard drive goes and was advised these parts get couriered to
HP twice daily. I rang HP to ask for the old hard drive only to be told that
they take no responsibility as we did sign the agreement, and even if they could
locate it, the moment the old hard drive is removed it is deleted and classed at
"e-junk" as it no longer contains any information. I burst into tears to hear my
precious information described as e-junk.
Had we been
told this straight up, that when its taken out, it is not backed up first, due
to privacy and it is then deleted and thrown away, rather than being told
something to falsely reassure us that they will make every effort not to delete
all our information, we would have taken the laptop to a computer expert first
before handing it in for repair. We purchased this pricier, higher range laptop
less than a year ago when we sold our house, so that for once we would not have
to deal with "cheap crap". You live and learn. Due to moving twice and normal
busy lives we had not done a back up since moving at the end of March last year.
I have really learnt my lesson to back up continually.
I remind myself it's not the end of the world and a lot worse happens in life. But I am kicking myself for not backing up more often but I think HP are very callous with people
hearts.
I have since
purchased a program to retrieve deleted photos off my camera SD card which after
a few hours work I was thrilled and relieved to find about 3 months worth of old
photos, much to my relief and I have also, one by one, been able to copy photos
from anywhere my photos are on-line such as Facebook and this blog. Family and
friends, I will be asking you to also look for any photos you may have as well
please.
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| On a happy note, I am in love with the roses from my garden sitting in my Nan's anodised travel cup. Lou x |
