[Colossus610]

In any respect, with todays' computers coming standard with CD-Burners(or DVD-RW's), portable laptop drive enclosures, USB Flash memory based thumb drives, everybody going wireless(even on desktops, which sickens me).
There should be no reason for people to not have at the very least their most valuable data backed up to some sort of portable or remote media.

That's what the whole wiping out of data and losing it boils down to.

Computers are glorified toasters.
Toasters break, alternators fry out, starters lock up, ANY AND ALL technology, from the most basic toaster to the most complex Space Shuttle are still a mass of parts made from scratch out of raw elements and coaxed into mechanical existence.

Most of us have Auto Insurance in case of vehicular failure, many of us have Health Insurance in case of illness/disease, Homeowner's Insurance, Renter's Insurance, AAA Roadside Assistance, On-Star etc etc etc etc etc etc.

While there are no "Data Loss Protection" insurance policies per se, the best anyone can do , and what the best of do is to provide ourselves the means with which to duplicate our most valuable data to some other media other than the creating computer and keep it seperate from said computer.

Many of us own vehicles, that start with the twist of a key, now I ask; How many keys did you get when you purchased that vehicle?
I have recieved no less than three with the last few cars I have purchased. I am married, conveniently, that makes one for me , one for the wifey, and one gets shut away in a fire-safe or given to my mother, or someone I trust, for safe-keeping. Cars even come with spare tires as a backup.
Same with house keys. The point of this is backups.

Always have a backup, on anything of the most mediocre importance to you.
This applies to your data as well.

Much of the anger and aggression I recieve at work from irate customers I know is misplaced because they are angry that they didn't back it up or they didn't think it was too important of a thing to be bothered with.

Just because you can't see it or because it may just be a bunch of ones and zeroes doesn't mean it doesn't represent what may be most important to you.

This is a neat and rather simple synchronization/backup utility made by Microsoft themselves, set up a couple folder pairs, and a couple clicks and it creates a mirror image of any folder of your choice from hard drive to hard drive or across a network, it's simple, it's free and it's a good start.
Microsoft SnycToy

I don't work for BestBuy, personally I have issues with how they conduct their business, yes, but the loss of data is not wholly their fault.
They should have at least attempted to save your "My Documents", "Favorites", "Desktop", and E-Mail at the very least. That is bogus, where I work we at least attempt to save what we can if it comes down to reinstalling Windows.

Any computer repair technician has stories of the failed hard drive, or the doomed power supply, or even the cockroach that happened to crawl inside your system and just happened to excrete certain things upon two circuit tracings(The cockroach gets it yes, but so may your system ).

Stranger things have happened. And with that knowledge being passed along, I'm gonna go image my gaming machine hard drive.

[Alex Ethridge]

I agree with all you wrote--and I agree we should all get at least one hour's exercise that raises your heart rate to a certain level every day, we should obstain from beverages that make us less aware of our surroundings and that can damage our organs, we should all obstain from sports that might break our bones or cause heart failure in sweltering conditions, obstain from mountain climbing because of the potential dangers, and let's not leave out boating, swimming, skydiving and even driving nails.

The common denominator here is human nature. And people in the computer services business are ALL sharply aware of the human nature concerning backup. And those who ignore it, in my opinion, are incompetent idiots who need to find another way to make a living.

[Super-D-38]

I didn't read all 9 pages so I apologize if this has been said.

But, after reading all the trouble here. I found it funny that I see Geek Squad ad's at the top of TSG..

I know the site needs money, but from a bad company?.. Does it hurt TSG's image to "recommend" them?..
Course it sends more people to TSG to fix the problems.

[I Fix 4 U]

I think TSG has no say in the matter, they have an advertising company that will supply their own ads. Atleast it is targeted (if the topic is bestbuy then you get bestbuy ads). AdSense is good, idk what ads you are seeing, as I dont get them, but yah kinda funny.

[Super-D-38]

Operating System Install
Stuck in 98? Agents can get you up-to-speed by installing a new operating system on your computer. » more
$229

OMG!!! It guides you step by step...
Do they charge for the OS too?.. Extra $300 - $100..

Software Service
If you have a software program that?s giving you trouble, we?ll send an Agent over to get it back in line. » more
$159

Just reinstall it.. Duh.

At home prices... http://www.geeksquad.com/servicesand...teservices.php
And people pay this?... Crap, I should start charging more than free - $5.

[PixieStrange]

"accidental" formats. It's what happens when you have 10 different people working on 20 different machines every day in between getting yelled at by freaks who expect YOU to make their computer better cause it's under some damn kind of warranty or another and SURELY it covers them dipping their cat in salt water, throwing him into the computer case and turning the computer on. Oh yea, and they had a keggar the night before and AFTER the keg leaked ALL over it, it got knocked out of the second story window.

All that and no communication = people not paying attention to what they're doing and having their faces owned when they realize "Oh (*#&$ we just formatted this person's HD".

*puts on greedy corporate hat*

As you can see PLAINLY on this waiver that you signed, we are not responsible for lost data, so you're S.O.L. Bye!

*takes off greedy corporate hat*

Yea, we're not like that. What they SHOULD be doing is "Wow, we're SO sorry! We'll do our best to get that information back (insert gratis 'Oops, we ^%&*^% up' thingy here) for you."

As to "You should ONLY trust the local computer shop people". Oh, you mean like the ones I've seen charge poeple $1,500 for an Athlon 2000+ XP / 128 MB RAM 20GB 17" CRT (not even flat screen, jeez)? I think not. Bottom line is there are (*#&%( everywhere. When you get screwed by a larger one, it's generally easier to get more for your trouble because they can take the hit. *shrug*

When you get screwed by a smaller one, they're out of business a little ways down the road anyway.

[Colossus610]

Originally Posted by PixieStrange

As to "You should ONLY trust the local computer shop people". Oh, you mean like the ones I've seen charge poeple $1,500 for an Athlon 2000+ XP / 128 MB RAM 20GB 17" CRT (not even flat screen, jeez)? I think not. Bottom line is there are (*#&%( everywhere. When you get screwed by a larger one, it's generally easier to get more for your trouble because they can take the hit. *shrug*

When you get screwed by a smaller one, they're out of business a little ways down the road anyway.

I work for a small privately run computer repair/sales store that has been in business since 1983, and we actually know the value of the parts it takes to build a really good machine, I have had god knows how many people come in say they got a quote for some machine, and we always beat it.
When you go to the big stores, and get a preconfigured box kit computer, you almost never get what you want, you get what the big companies think you need or say you need.(Like an Intel, everybody needs an Intel, just because they sleep with some of the major retailers and manufacturer's everybody seems to think you need an Intel chip)
For the first time this August, in the retail channel, their have been more AMD system's sitting on the shelf of big stores like BestBuy or CDW or CompUSA

A friend of mine came in and requested a quote for an AMD 64 Socket 939 3500, 2 GB DDR, 120 GB SATA, 250 GB SATA, GeForce 6600 256 MB PCI-E, Dual Layer DVD-RW/CD-RW Dual Format, Audigy 4 Platinum Pro, 500W PSU, a decent Coolermaster case, oh and a floppy drive.
(The ATX(yes, not one of those crappy Micro ATX or anything)motherboard was a fully functional and upgradable motherboard with onboard 8 channel audio, gigabit LAN, FirewireB, Hardware RAID, etc etc, i think it was the Gigabyte K8NF9 Ultra)

I quoted him 1450.
I know it may not be the best, but it's FAR from the worst. And for a small "rinky-dink" computer store that's been doing it since IIE's were the shiznit, it aint bad.

[PixieStrange]

Originally Posted by Colossus610

I work for a small privately run computer repair/sales store that has been in business since 1983, and we actually know the value of the parts it takes to build a really good machine, I have had god knows how many people come in say they got a quote for some machine, and we always beat it.
When you go to the big stores, and get a preconfigured box kit computer, you almost never get what you want, you get what the big companies think you need or say you need.(Like an Intel, everybody needs an Intel, just because they sleep with some of the major retailers and manufacturer's everybody seems to think you need an Intel chip)
For the first time this August, in the retail channel, their have been more AMD system's sitting on the shelf of big stores like BestBuy or CDW or CompUSA

A friend of mine came in and requested a quote for an AMD 64 Socket 939 3500, 2 GB DDR, 120 GB SATA, 250 GB SATA, GeForce 6600 256 MB PCI-E, Dual Layer DVD-RW/CD-RW Dual Format, Audigy 4 Platinum Pro, 500W PSU, a decent Coolermaster case, oh and a floppy drive.
(The ATX(yes, not one of those crappy Micro ATX or anything)motherboard was a fully functional and upgradable motherboard with onboard 8 channel audio, gigabit LAN, FirewireB, Hardware RAID, etc etc, i think it was the Gigabyte K8NF9 Ultra)

I quoted him 1450.
I know it may not be the best, but it's FAR from the worst. And for a small "rinky-dink" computer store that's been doing it since IIE's were the shiznit, it aint bad.

Obviously you're not in the habit of screwing people *Applause*

The system I quoted was sold to someone less than 2 months ago. And yea, the pre-packaged machines are always junk. Even with "Good" HW, it's all OEM HW and is poopy. Personally I refuse to use anything I didn't build (Though some of those e-machines DO look tempting to gut).

At least MOST *Angry glare at HP/Compaq* MFGs have stopped bundlimng WeatherBug with everything. Now if ONLY they would STOP the sinister practice of bundling AOL on machines....

I once opened a new computer (We were doing a customization on it), went to uninstall AOL (per the Client's request), and the machine Blue-Screened...

o_O

I couldn't stop laughing for like, 10 minutes, but couldn't get AOl off either. Tried another machine (Same make/model) and had the same result. I told them to pick a different machine if they wanted to be rid of AOL's corruption. And I didn't exactly trust a machine that AOL WON'T come off of. *Angry glare at HP/Compaq*

Though, I do miss the computer shop that used to be around in Ft Smith. Was a great shop, then the management changed, and they were bought out by some White Box computing crap, and their CS went totally crappy. Bought some RAM once (after the change) and it was bad (VERY obviously bad). The guy (whom I had seen less than 4 hours earlier) put the RAM into one of his display computers, booted it up, saw that the BIOS recognized all of it, saw that windows recognized all of it (as in, could count it) handed it back to me and was like "There is nothing wrong with this RAM."

@@

MemTest.... great program....50,000+ errors in the first minute of running. Of course, I didn't bother to actually test the RAM until I started blue-screening every 1-3 minutes after installing it and doing something memory intensive. Told him to tax the system, so he fires up IE and goes to google.com...

-_-

I called their corporate offices and spent like 2 hours on the phone with them, and they authorized the exchange (apologizing profusely for what had occured), and the guy REFUSED to do it! I had them call him and he argued with them about it for like 20 minutes!

Like I said, you run into (*#^% everywhere. And if you get into the habit of screwing your Clientele over.... Your clientele leaves you...

[I Fix 4 U]

Yo, I got this HP and it came superbundeled with crud. Took me 3 days (on and off) and I got it completely clean of the many different annoyances, including AOL.

[PixieStrange]

There wqas one particular model of HP that was sold for all of like 1 week before it got yanked. Blue-Screened every time you tried to take AOL out. interestingly enough, a workaround WAS found, had to disable the spooler service, along with ALL of AOL's services, AND all the RPC/Remote Registry services, reboot to safe mode, delete some of AOL's config files, then reboot, run the uninstall. It would give an error first (which would re-create the needed files), then run it again and it goes away.

Stupid AOL...

Stupid HP...

[I Fix 4 U]

It did involve me going into the service manager, and loading startup cop to remove everything from startup, then safemode eventually, but i finally yanked everything out. Haven't had spyware since (there was this one incident tho, where my dad ended up gettin smitfraud on the comp , but i cleaned it)

[Colossus610]

Originally Posted by Colossus610

A friend of mine came in and requested a quote for an AMD 64 Socket 939 3500, 2 GB DDR, 120 GB SATA, 250 GB SATA, GeForce 6600 256 MB PCI-E, Dual Layer DVD-RW/CD-RW Dual Format, Audigy 4 Platinum Pro, 500W PSU, a decent Coolermaster case, oh and a floppy drive.
(The ATX(yes, not one of those crappy Micro ATX or anything)motherboard was a fully functional and upgradable motherboard with onboard 8 channel audio, gigabit LAN, FirewireB, Hardware RAID, etc etc, i think it was the Gigabyte K8NF9 Ultra)

I quoted him 1450.
I know it may not be the best, but it's FAR from the worst. And for a small "rinky-dink" computer store that's been doing it since IIE's were the shiznit, it aint bad.

Oh ya, just because he's a friend of mine doesnt mean he got some special price, he mighta gotten 30 bucks or so off, but my boss is still my boss and he has final say in what I can/have to charge.

[primetime212]

I wonder if there are any 40 year old Geek Squaders out there...

[Alex Ethridge]

I guess if there are 40-year-old behind-the-counter guys at McDonald's, there are probably some 40-year-old Geekers out there somewhere--probably retarded, though.

[primetime212]

Originally Posted by Alex Ethridge

I guess if there are 40-year-old behind-the-counter guys at McDonald's, there are probably some 40-year-old Geekers out there somewhere--probably retarded, though.

i can picture that