IÂ’ve been deceived!!!

[Seria]

**dont care for the story? my question is at the bottom.*

Last month I started to experience problems with my laptop. They where just the “normal” Windows errors that over time snowball into bigger problems... Anyways, I took it upon myself to wipe the hard-drive and install Windows .

Well, the next week I took it in to upgrade from a wireless-B to a G. The guy turns it on and has a come-unglue at me. He is all but screaming at me right in the front of the store! He said: “Windows isn’t as easy to install as clicking ‘next’ ‘next’ ‘next’ like people think. We guarantee our product because WE ‘fix’ the problems, not a silly girl like you!”

He went on and on and nothing he said had any more than 10% truth to it.

Anyways... I will tell you how that whole thing went down if you want but the moral of the story is this: All they do to ‘fix’ a problem is “re-image” the hard drive.

Once I got it back it worked for about 10 seconds then it stopped working. So I took it back again, they “re-re-imaged” the hard drive and it worked for about another week or so...

I am going to take it back again and tell them that I want them to format the hard drive and install Windows normally. But before I do I have a question:

HERE IS MY QUESTION:

Is there a way to tell the difference between: [a formatted hard drive and fresh Windows install] and [just another re-image]?

Please help me!!!

 

[BVR]

Run any of data recovery software lie file scavenger see if brings up any old files.

 

[Seria]

They gave me the OS (WinXPproSP1) when I bought the laptop. They just add their "service info" in the "General System Properties"...

Where could I get some data recovery software?

And how would I be able to tell if it is old data? Check the properties of the file and see if it was created before the current OS? Could I hide a file at the end of the HD and hope the imaging process doesnÂ’t write over it?

 

[Seria]

Anybody?

 

[harobikes333]

Ya stumped me... not that it takes alot when it comes to computers....

Ask me a fireworks question tho! lol

 

[Seria]

I really wanna know if these people just re-image my HD rather than do what I tell them to do.

If they don't format and do a fresh install like I will ask them... I'm gonna start sh*t with the store and eventually light fires all the way up the corporate ladder.

 

[Seria]

What exactly does imaging a HD do? I mean, I know it copies one HD to another but, does that include completely wiping the HDÂ’s table of contents?

 

[Sui]

http://officerecovery.com/freeundelete/ well thats for NTFS, not sure what you have. I've never really worked with those images, so I'm not 100 percent sure of how they work.

 

[waynejkruse10]

“Windows isn’t as easy to install as clicking ‘next’ ‘next’ ‘next’ like people think.

Lol, tell him it actually is.

This may not work..., check in disk defragmenter analyse the C:\ drive.
When you format the C:\ drive fragments are removed, however if its an image it may be fragmented.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

I dont see what recovering old data will tell her? You can recover data from probably the first time an OS was ever installed and formatted multiple times after...

The re-image is just as good as a format it is doing the samething as a format with way less work. As for being able to tell I cant think of a way really. Unless they are using ghost..if you see this file on the root of your C: "VIRTPART.DAT" then they imaged it with ghost.