A brief recap: On Monday, exhausted from BlogHer (and suffering from the onset of BlogHerBola Virus), I learned that a trusted member of my family was feeling even more sickly than I: My computer flashed me a message stating that my hard disk was about to fail, and warning me to back up my data immediately. Then it froze.
The following morning, I hied myself over to the nearest outpost of the Geek Squad, where a nice young man named Joel reassured me by showing me that he could see my data there on the disk, and he was confident he could get it all back.
You know where this is going, don't you?
I had been tweeting my whole Geek Squad adventure (what else are you going to do when you're waiting in line -- and after all, they reminded me a LOT of the Nerd Herd on the NBC-TV series Chuck, which made them seem like a lot more fun even though I am certain not one of them is a secret weapon for the CIA).
My Twitter friend Boriqua sent me a direct message, warning me that she and her husband had a not-so-great experience with Geek Squad service. I thanked her and crossed my fingers. At some point, you just have to have some faith. And I was feeling too lousy to do anything else.
I called Geek Squad back on Wednesday to find out if they'd made any progress. "We did your back up," I was informed by the woman who answered the phone. Now, they needed my authorization to charge me for a new hard drive, install and system restore. ETA: two to three business days. The earliest I could have my computer back was Friday.
So I made do. I commandeered my old computer (now ancient!) that I'd bequeathed my daughter when I purchased the current one. It's really only good now for simple web browsing, but at least I was able to keep up on my email (albeit using a clumsy web interface). I could not initiate a lot of email because the contact information was on the old hard drive, as were all my passwords. That's OK. It will only be a few days.
When I did not hear from them today, I figured I would call tomorrow (Saturday). Then, after dinner, I noticed I'd received a voice mail: It was an automated message from the Geek Squad, informing me that my computer was ready to pick up. And so I did, along with two backup disks on DVD and a box containing the old, failed hard drive.
I brought my computer home and booted up and discovered that "system restore" only refers to the actual Windows system (in my case, Vista - let's not go there, OK?) Fine. Having all my programs and files restored was too much to hope for anyway.
But then came the surprises. First, that the restored system didn't have any of the old wallpaper files. I know, that's not a big deal, but now my computer doesn't feel like my computer any more. It's got a weird picture on startup which I'll have to get used to.
And then I punched in the DVD that contained my backup files: They were completely unfamiliar. They weren't mine. They belonged to some guy named Jorge.
So I called Geek Squad back and told them my problem. The woman who answered the phone sounded panicked. I can understand that -- Jorge probably doesn't want some stranger poking around in his files. Neither do I. She put me on hold while they looked around the Geek Squad work area to make sure they hadn't given someone else MY disks.
"Come back in," she told me.
So I drove back to their store, waited in line (again!) and then waited longer at the counter while Joel double-checked to make sure that this time, I would be getting the right disk.
I was relieved to see my name on the folders when I got it home and booted it up.
And then, my relief turned to dismay. My folders were there -- but they're all empty. All that's on the disk are a few configuration files for a couple of my old programs. There are no documents. No spreadsheets. No emails. No Palm Organizer files. No photos. No videos. No music. No Quicken files. (AARGH. I just purchased $50 worth of British TV series and hadn't backed them up and hadn't shared them with my husband. They are all GONE the next time I try to sync my iPod.)
Mind you, I knew this was a danger on Monday when my hard drive died in the first place. But Joel and his colleagues gave me hope. Not once did any of them say, "By the way, we got all the data we could, but none of it is very useful to you." They let me plunk down my money and come home (TWICE!) where I could have that disappointment by myself.
I called them back and complained about that part -- after all, it would have been nice to know that they were unsuccessful in getting back my data. And I will give them points for this: They refunded the $99 they'd charged me for the data backup. And they referred me to another Geek Squad store in Santa Monica, where they specialize in restoring data that's been through fires and stuff.
I'm not sure I even want to try. Even if they can get the data back, it will probably cost an arm and a leg. I might be better off giving the old drive to my husband, who is geeky enough himself to want to give it a try. It would cost less.
And on the bright side: The new hard drive is 70 gigs larger than the one that failed. And now that I'm working off a computer that has NOTHING on it, it's running like new again. I'm going to be very, very careful with which programs I restore.
And I'm taking Boriqua's advice and staying away from the Geek Squad.
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