Rule #1- Back Up. Externally. Frequently. You Dumbass.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Dude:"uh yeah, I have this problem, I was sorta hoping for a quick fix"
Me:"well...ok, let me get your info and we'll see what we can do

*dude gives vital info, I open record, blah blah blah*

Me:"ok so what's going on?"
Dude:*lot's of probably but not necessarily definitely stuff about an external firewire drive* "and I turned my computer off, and started it back up nad it was like I never turned the computer on before, it wanted me to set up everyhting from scratch"
Me:" Ok, so you rebooted your computer and it's basically back to out-of-box condition?"
Dude: "Yes. Everything"
Me:Out Loud: "Hmm...ok, that's really strange."
Me: In my head: "WTF did you do? Dude, you're screwed. I bet you're not backed up either"
Me, again to dude:"Are you backed up externally?"
Dude:"No. Do I need to be? Can you just tell me what preference or cache files to pull to fix this? I'd really like a quick fix"
Me"Hmm...did you do a search of your hard drive for any of your data?Is anyhting left?"
Dude: "No, it all seems to be gone. But I can recover it can't I?"
Me: "If it's not on your drive, it's gone. And you weren't backed up, that's the only way I can help you recover your data"
Dude: "That's not the answer I wanted"

Dude goes on to tell me that he has to go and asks me to do some research as to how to get his data back, he'll call back tomorrow. I try to explain that he's not going to get it back. Dude keeps saying that that's "not the answert he wants to hear" and he "wants a quick fix"

Well...you're not gonna get one and I'm not gonna lie to you.

Stoopid people keep me employed.

Comments

[fnordx.livejournal.com]

"You want a quick fix? Ok, here goes. Unplug the computer. You got that? Ok, now, take it and pick it up about 2 feet off the desk, and drop it. You may have to do this a few times. What you're doing is shaking the formatted bits off of the hard drive. That'll fix you almost as quick as running it through the diskwasher to wash all of the formatted blocks off your computer."

And, as far as if someone told me "That's not the answer I want", well, for that "Well, sir, I want superpowers and the ability to make people's head explode over the phone. I guess we're both just going to be disapointed."

[mrsvickie.livejournal.com]

LMAO!!! I know that feeling...

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

"Unplug the computer. You got that? Ok, now, take it and pick it up about 2 feet off the desk, and drop it."

Did you used to work for Hewlett Packard support?

[fuego.livejournal.com]

no...but i do currently work for apple tech support. i don't think i could do tech support on anyhitng involving Winblows

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

Give'm the name of a data recovery company. cause that'll be a quick fix that will get most of the data back. now it'll only run him 3000$ but hey his own damn fault. ;-)

[boredevilperson.livejournal.com]

Geez people expect frickin' miracles . . .

Kinda like the people that never change the oil in their car and are shocked to find out the cost to repair a ruined engine runs in the few thousand dollar range

and ya know...

[elobscuro.livejournal.com]

I tell people this... especially when it looks like a debug-format-reinstall job... and then notice that they have no optical writer, no zip drive... in fact, the only removable-media drive they have is a floppy... and a 120-gig hdd. I had to sepnd ten minutes explaining just the MATH to the customer, at his request. And no, even then, I can't send a tech out to fix your software problem.

But what I really, REALLY hate is when a previous tech started the process without mentioning the data loss. That's bad enough. What's worse is when they explcitly TELL the customer that the files in "My Documents" won't be affected. By a real, full, clean reinstall. Actually pissed me off at someone besides the customer, for a change.

Re: and ya know...

[fuego.livejournal.com]

ah, no no no...i do tech support for Apple. floppy drives? *giggle* you're talking nonsense!


and a "clean install"...applies to OS 9....does actually leave their stuff intact. kinda like an archive/install in OS 10.2 or better. except then you get the mess of preserving users and network settings or not...

Re: and ya know...

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

OH STOPPIT >_<

I am automatically suspicious of anything that is resistant to not letting me crack it open and poke at it's guts.

Guess that explains why I don't much like people...