Everything on my laptop.
Apparently, there is a program called ‘Optimum’ that is supposed to be disabled when Windows is installed. No body told me that. They won’t back up anything. They told me they could ship it to me, I can take it to a shop, who can probably get into it, back up my 500G of stuff that would cost me quite a bit of money and then we can try again.
Needless to say, that poor foreign girl just learned some new words and I’m off to let their Facebook have it.
zee's muse 
Oh no I’m sorry so did they offer any help at all?
Oh they told me they could send it back as is, I could take it to a repair shop, have the data backed up (how? IT won’t boot!) for probably several hundred dollars and then I can pay to overnight it back and they would reinstall windows.
I just trashed their Facebook.
So now what?
I just got an email. I’m not happy and he knows it. So does their facebook. Basically, I told them I think they should pay to send it to a nearby repair shop, pay them to recover my information, pay them to reload windows. If they had any integrity, that’s what they would do. But they don’t have any integrity. My previous HP was a piece of shit, this machine is a piece of shit, so please, go ahead and wipe it and realize that when it fucks up again, you’ll get it back in pieces. That’s just how I feel about HP right now.
Is there a higher up at HP who can help you?
I’ve talked to three people. All apologized and said they understood how I feel, but they won’t do it.
Ok so what next?
They’re going to wipe it and reload it. I’m going to lose everything. I can’t afford to take it to someone to retrieve the data. I’m trying to move and I don’t know where that money is going to come from.
Geez. Just one thing after another. On the other hand, maybe you are supposed to start everything fresh in the new locale. New move; new everything! (Still, not the result you were hoping for.)
Right now, I’m kinda… hit me again. Just hit me again. I’m not dead yet. Right now, THIS is my theme song.
Or there’s always https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q_rbjg2k6cI .
That pretty much nails it!
Oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear that
Commiserations, Zee. That’s awful.
Maybe with your next laptop, could you also invest in a huge external hard drive and do safety back-ups on a regular basis? Just to save you this grief? I don’t know about Windows, but MacOS has this built-in feature called “Time Machine”, i.e. a back-up programme that asks you every two weeks (or any other time frame you set) to back up your files. It also makes rebooting/setting up a new machine really easy. There must be similar stuff for Windows. Spawn probably knows.
I have 9 working externals for a total of 12T of back up that are full. I had planned for this summer to be a burning summer to get a lot off (mostly the movies and television shows, and back up the books, crafty stuff) but those plans changed when I got the job.
Thing is, when I did the wipe in March, I backed everything up then, so that SHOULD be places.
I discovered late last night that I had backed up my fanfiction and writing 2 weeks ago, when my problems started. I also backed up (moved off) the school stuff, so that’s good. Still, the books, the challenge, the pictures. I had some music and movies recently downloaded that hadn’t been moved yet.
But then you should be set? If you have everything backed up, what’s the worry about the laptop?
For the most part, what was backed up was backed up in March. I DID find a very recent back up of my fanfiction and I’ve found a recent back up of my challenge stuff. 9I found that last night!) But all my pictures, music, stuff I got for school, I didn’t back up. Also, my fanfiction and challange stuff is spread across 9 externals!!! Trying to find it is a search and a half. I NEED to redo my external set up – all the books in one place, all the knitting, the cros stitch in one place. I NEED to burn my movies and television series that I have downloaded.
My mom has specific dishes and stuff she makes during the holidays, but she has as many cookbooks and magazines as I do and trying to find them can be an all day thing. She finally started sticky noting and writing the dish she used and the page number ON the cover. Helps a lot.
Also there is the PITA of tricking out the laptop again. Remember, I have way too many kindles and my PC kindle is my library. 144 folders and right now 45000 books JUST from Amazon.
Put the word FREE in the price and I’m a total whore.
Oh no! I really feel your pain. What a bunch of shysters 🤬🤬🤬
Really unhappy. I let some poor customer service have it both barrels and then they emailed me with the same information. Sooooo angry.
Oh, dear what a mess. Yes HP is crap. What a mess and I know it messes with your mind thinking of losing all of that. Damn you think they would be able to back it up for you since they have it in your hands and charge you a small fee or none at all since they never mention about “before installing windows”. Sometimes you just have to take it out on someone and it is usually the person you are talking with however, most people I ask to speak to a manager, they kept putting me on hold for them and finally last person I told I was going to call the Better Business Bureau and guess what the manger called me within 15 min and I got my refund. Granted it is not the same but sometimes everything just seems so frustrating which you don’t need.
They’re telling me it was ‘for my security’ – hello??? But I can take it somewhere and PAY them to disregard my security???
I was GOING to ask them to update the ram and pay them. not now!
You have my sympathy girl. I used to go through a laptop every six to eight months back in the 90s. They weren’t the cheap ones either, usually 3500 or more but I kept burning them out. Every time it happened, I’d have to spend days reloading all the programs I use, setting email, ugh. It was a bitch. (Because of the work I do, I guess they got used up hard.) Anyway, I switched to Mac in 2007 and then bought a Time Machine which I have back my stuff up every night. They few times I’ve had to replace my MacBook, once cause it was stolen and once cause I coughed coffee on the screen and it got inside. Took literally 30 minutes to reinstall everything each time. So worth the price of that time machine. Seriously.
Sorry about the hell you are going through.
It also makes no sense they can’t save your data. Bitches. 😡
I let them know what I thought about that.
When this is over and we’re settled, I’m going to put Linux on my old Dell. If it does well, bye bye Windows!
Sounds like a good idea 😊🌷🌼🌹