LaCie harddrives

[Ronn_Bman]

$1600 is highway robbery! It looks like they could work something out with you since both your backup drives failed consecutively.

This isn't the first time I've heard this about a failed drive, under warranty, being reformatted by the manufacturer against pecific instructions by the owner. Most manufacturers reserve the right to repair or replace faulty products at their discretion and deny any liability for lost data.

Obviously, it sucks!

[ 08-25-2004, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]

[Yorick]

OK. This is an email I sent out. Feel free to cut and paste it and onsend it. I'm not going to accept the uncaring destruction of peoples property as "standard procedure". They basically said, they will not repair ANY problem with the drive without formatting it. So, even for a minor prob, you've lost your data.

Here it is:
==============================


WARNING - LaCie hardrives


If you value your data, do not buy a LaCie harddrive.

That is the sorry lesson I have learned.

I had two. Both still under warranty, both backing each other up. They BOTH failed. One irrecoverably.

The other one, had a faulty firewire port. I sent it in to LaCie with the explicit instructions, by phone, email and even on the box, not to erase or format the drive. That if they were unable to fix it without formatting that they should send it back to me to recover the data another way.

Without any correspondence from LaCie, they sent me back the drive..... formatted. Erased. The precious data forever taken from me.

I got no sympathy from the person I complained to on the phone, who cited "procedures" as "standard" in the industry.

So let's change the industry.

If we call in the builder of our house to come in and fix a leaky faucet, would we expect them to destroy all our possessions because they're afraid of getting a virus?

What insanity is this? Why do we accept soul destoying practices from the computer industry we'd never accept in any other?

So this is the reality. If you buy a LaCie hardrive, and it fails, even under warranty, you will forever lose your data. They will make no attempt to save what is precious to you. In fact, they will proactively destroy it.

I lost music. Art. I lost others music. Others art. Forever gone. Yes it was backed up. On another LaCie drive.

Use at your own risk. I will never again purchase another drive from LaCie, and if I were you, I would spread the word about the shoddy workmanship, poor communications and destructive repairing techniques.

One way of changing the industry is with our wallets.

Take care

Hugh Wilson

[ 08-25-2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: Yorick ]

[sageridder]

I would contact the attorney generals office, better buisness bureu, and dept. of consumer affiars.I would imagine someone at one of these offices will point you in the right direction.I realize how mad you must be and rightfully so, but I would be carefull posting or emailing anything that in a court might have the potential to be called slanderious or liable.Just would hate to see them have even close to a leg to stand on.

[Yorick]

Is what I posted slanderous or libelous? I just sent it......

Libel is mistruth is it not? I'm sharing a factual story that happened to me.

[sageridder]

From a legal standpoint I don't know, I only added that because I would hate to see them have any potential ammo against you.

[Aerich]

Yorick, sorry to hear about your bad luck.

I'm only training to be a lawyer (and in a different country), but most of it looks ok to me. DISCLAIMER STATEMENT - This is my unprofessional opinion; if you are really worried, take it to a proper lawyer (although you're broke, so it's probably not an option).

To clarify:
Libel = mis-statements made in print
Slander = mis-statements made verbally
Both of them often require some degree of malicious intent (e.g. mis-statement was intentionally and falsely made to discredit someone), but not always.

There is one potential problem that I will highlight for you:

"So this is the reality. If you buy a LaCie hardrive, and it fails, even under warranty, you will forever lose your data. They will make no attempt to save what is precious to you. In fact, they will proactively destroy it."

Specifically, the last two sentences make a bold blanket claim about their practices and operating procedures. I would remove or alter them.

The other content is based on your personal experience with them and your own opinion, so it should pass.

Hope this helps.
________________________________________________

And on a totally unrelated note, allow me to congratulate you on your engagement. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

[ 08-25-2004, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Luvian]

Even if your hard drive got formated, you might still be able to get your information back.

I even once read an arcticle about a bunch of university guys that went to the garbage dump and took hard drives there to recover the data for the arcticle on security they were working on. One of them had been from an ATM machine and when they restored it they could have had access to the years of data on it if they wanted.

[ 08-25-2004, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by Luvian: Even if your hard drive got formated, you might still be able to get your information back. I even once read an arcticle about a bunch of university guys that went to the garbage dump and took hard drives there to recover the data for the arcticle on security they were working on. One of them had been from an ATM machine and when they restored it they could have had access to the years of data on it if they wanted.

Awhile back there was a topic about this. Anyhow, I believe I was called 'paranoid' when I said 3 minimum and 7 optimum swipes before putting one up for sale, or tossing it.

Unfortunately LaCie is well known for being user/customer unfriendly in their relations department. Why they would do a re-format on a customer's drive just to make a fire wire connection repair is beyond me. I don't think it is their duty to eliminate data, but to get the product back up and running.

Yorick, did you check the serial number to ensure that is your drive. Could be possibly it got switched?

BTW, could you update us on your hamstring?

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Felix The Assassin: Awhile back there was a topic about this. Anyhow, I believe I was called 'paranoid' when I said 3 minimum and 7 optimum swipes before putting one up for sale, or tossing it.

From what I hears, one of the safest solution was to fill your hardrive with dummy data then format it. Anyone restoring it will only get the dummy data, since you overwrote the real stuff.

[Bozos of Bones]

A format, then reraise windows and then reformat with different partitions will get rid of any and all data on a disk. BTW, it's still possible, although somewhat hard, to get the data back at this point, unless you're actively using the drive. Me and my friend managed to retrieve 8 years old information from a 510 MB drive in about a half an hour of work. All it takes is time, take it to someone who you know can do stuff with PCs and ask him if he's able to retrieve data.