Acer lost my hard drive after repairing it

Pretzel115

It's already been about 11 months since my laptop stopped functioning correctly (Predator Helios 300) and I sent it to Acer for them to repair it. It seems like it was a hard drive issue. They replaced the hard drive with a new one and transferred all the data from the old to the new drive. The problem is, they didn't transfer everything; the data in (:D) was missing, and it contained a lot of very valuable information such as old pictures. They were supposed to send me the laptop back along with the old disk (if they had done that, I would have tried to recover the missing info myself), but they didn't. So, they sent the laptop but kept the old disk. I sent multiple messages asking for the disk back and when they finally replied they said they were "looking for it" (which is obviously untrue). 

What else can I do? I really need the missing data back. Did they already destroy the disk or are they obliged to store it?

I waited this long because I was left with no options until I thought about asking this here, 11 months later (this happened around late March). I'm from Spain, just in case it is worth knowing. 

sri369

Pretzel115 said:

It's already been about 11 months since my laptop stopped functioning correctly (Predator Helios 300) and I sent it to Acer for them to repair it. It seems like it was a hard drive issue. They replaced the hard drive with a new one and transferred all the data from the old to the new drive. The problem is, they didn't transfer everything; the data in (:D) was missing, and it contained a lot of very valuable information such as old pictures. They were supposed to send me the laptop back along with the old disk (if they had done that, I would have tried to recover the missing info myself), but they didn't. So, they sent the laptop but kept the old disk. I sent multiple messages asking for the disk back and when they finally replied they said they were "looking for it" (which is obviously untrue). 

What else can I do? I really need the missing data back. Did they already destroy the disk or are they obliged to store it?

I waited this long because I was left with no options until I thought about asking this here, 11 months later (this happened around late March). I'm from Spain, just in case it is worth knowing. 

Anytime any laptop (or any device is sent to service centers for repair), one should expect it to be reset to factory (in effect, wiping out all the data). In your case since your disk was replaced with a new one, the old one would be destroyed.
Data should always be backed up before sending devices to service centers.
They are not obligated to save the disk, you could try calling/reaching them out if in case your disk was still sitting in the dump in warehouse waiting to be recycled.

xapim

Pretzel115 never ever send your laptop to repair without backing up everything first the only thing its certain is that they will reset to stock its the most common procedure to rule out any software issues and start diagnosing hardware also neither acer neither any manufacturer (not even drive manufacturers) will care about any data its in the warranty policy of all of them they are not responsible for any data lost its up to the user to backup everything first before sending it anywhere so again nothing anyone can do here this is common warranty policy everywhere since i can remember working with laptops/desktops 20/25+ years ago

PS: Just a heads up to everyone theres not any manufacturer repairing drives they only replace them for working ones and bin the old ones if a drive dies and you need the data from it prepare thousands to pay to a recovery company to get your data back by disassembling it and replacing the part(s) needed in a safe dust free environment to get the drive back to work to just recover the data the drive its still not usable they will only recover your data from it (this is only worth if the data its really important if not just leave it be dont wast your money)

StevenGen

Just as a note to anyone else that has your problem. When you cant recover data from a faulty HDD with valuable data (be it on warranty of not) you never ever send it back to a service centre, as they are not data recovery specialists and whatever data that they recover (if they can???) is basic data and that is why you lost your valuable data, if it wasn't sent back in 11 months, good luck in getting it back? In 99.99% of time these HDD's are faulty and can't be used after any recovery has been done and that is probably why the service centre disposed of it.

I know that this is late advice but, you should have had the data recovered by a 'Data Recovery Specialist' first and then sent the faulty HDD to the service centre. Btw, this happened to me too and I sent it to a data recovery specialist and they recovered 99.99% of the data on that disk, that is the difference between sending it to a specialist and a service centre as they have all the appropriate equipment to recover data! 

xapim

Exactly as i stated before theres not any manufacturer either device or drive itself that would recover any data they just replace the drive (if its faulty or format it to a clean install) and thats it nothing can be done after its sent its over