Repair apprehension!

jimmycrackcorm

I have to send my hp laptop in under warranty to have the screen repaired. I was going through the hp warranty site and I spotted this gem and I was wondering if it means that HP wipe the drives of every laptop that comes in or just where requrested...

NOTE 3: HP fully understand the concerns raised by customers with regards to the security of any data which may be contained on a hard disk being sent for repair. HP's procedures for handling these items start by acknowledging that all such disks may contain sensitive business or technological information and that all appropriate security is in place to safeguard that information.
The procedure for handling returned units is as follows:

The documents accompanying a returned item, record the Authorised Service Provider name and ID number, the serial number of the machine it was removed from and a description of the fault.
Using the first two pieces of information for warranty verification only, the unit is then transferred to HP in Scotland, where it is mixed with units from all over Europe, Middle East and Africa for return to the repair vendor.
The repair of the item in no way depends on HP's ability to read any user data contained on the disk.
During the testing/repair cycle, the disks will have a destructive pattern written onto them that will erase all previously held user data.

Ghost Train

does seem a bit strange. in fairness though people should backup anything they need before sending it off, and wipe any sensitive data. good to see hp take the issue seriously, i'd be much happier with the system being wiped than i would with people looking through my stuff, as long as system files and the os are restored before the machine is returned of course.

also if hp want to fix software issues or hard disk issues, they shouldn't be expected to work around peoples files and spend time manually sorting things out, better to wipe the drive and restore the os to a day 1 hopefully guarrenteed to work state

petes

There is no way I'd want them looking at all my pron.

jimmycrackcorm

My problem is that I shudder at the thought of reinstalling everything particularly my development libraries which are notoriously difficult to re-install.

A complete reconfiguration of my laptop would use up two days to get right. I'm going to ghost everything anyway in any case, but really I don't want them wiping files when the problem is a physical LCD fault.

Ghost Train

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

My problem is that I shudder at the thought of reinstalling everything particularly my development libraries which are notoriously difficult to re-install.

A complete reconfiguration of my laptop would use up two days to get right. I'm going to ghost everything anyway in any case, but really I don't want them wiping files when the problem is a physical LCD fault.

in some laptops it's easy to remove the hard disk, if you were comfortable doing that, you could check with them see if it's okay(doubt it would be though),to send it off with out the hard drive. It's the one thing I wouldn't like going through the post and getting knocked around

majiktripp

You should be ok with the info on your hard drive,not a HDD related problem so should safe enough..lesson to learn tho' is backup your data!

Tom Dunne

The bottom line is, expect the worst.

As painful as it may be, assume you will lose everything on the hard drive. If you think about it, they probably operate a conveyor belt type repair system that follows a sequence of steps, most likely one of which is wipe hard drive and install diagnostic software.

secret_squirrel

tom dunne wrote:

As painful as it may be, assume you will lose everything on the hard drive.

Couldnt agree more. Infact I would say it is likely to happen regardless of what is wrong with the laptop.

Just think they probably assume that a good % of their returns are caused by virus's or corrupt windows intalls and a reformat and re-image is a good cure all for that kind of thing.

Definately expect lowest-common denominator support. Then you will be pleasantly surprised when it doesnt happen.

Cryos

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

I have to send my hp laptop in under warranty to have the screen repaired. I was going through the hp warranty site and I spotted this gem and I was wondering if it means that HP wipe the drives of every laptop that comes in or just where requrested...

Its not really a compulsary practice; But what i would reccomend is try to get a copy of Norton Ghost and image your laptop to somewhere safe; I work for a different part of HP but when we send the business laptops back sometimes they are wipped.

Hit or miss really unfortunatly. But more than likely in your case it shuoldnt be replaced.

tonyboy247

Bust the lapto open and drag the hard drive out to keep yourself....ok its going to bugger your warranty technically but you will get some craic along the way..and should put a stop to the old conveyor belt ah.