Computers & Networking

[japper]

OK, I must be confused with Circuit City where a friend used to work and told me that he made his money more on selling extended warranties...

The point is, that if a letter is to be written, the subject should more likely be that Best Buy is not honoring a warranty that they collected extra money for that they have no intention or earning.

Quite simply, If they can not unlock this drive, then I feel the warranty should cover its replacement and anything in addition to that for my time is not necessary- it just shouldn't be such a hassle, that's all.

[Xeek]

I'm a Geek Squad Agent, but I do not represent Best Buy here. I'm just contributing with my individual opinion, and I also spend a lot at Best Buy - that also makes me a customer.

The company in general of course, makes more money on service contracts. They have some of the highest amounts of profit margin - but not for the individual employee.

Have you obtained a copy of the terms and conditions for the plan you purchased? It covers replacement of parts due to defects in workmanship, dust, heat, humidity, power surge. Passwords being set is not considered a defect as the user has to manually set the password.

You can look around online and some will say certain Toshiba models will inadvertently set HDD passwords, unfortunately there isn't much proof for this.

Geek Squad DRD Services (When shipped to our service center) do have tools to remove this password, but the cost exceeds $400.

The only other option is a new hard drive (~$50-$70) and then you would need to use your recovery discs to reinstall Windows.

The password may not have been set by you, it could have been set by someone else, either way Best Buy doesn't have hard proof of how it happened, as these passwords are manually set.

[japper]

Sounds like a new hard drive is the only option.

I am not sure if my friend has a recovery disk that came with her laptop. If she doesn't how can I reload

Windows 7 (legally)?

It has the MS Windows 7 tag on the laptop but  I am not sure if she has the media...

thanks

[RealGeorgeW Valued Expert]

She/you will need to contact Toshiba, if you/she explains to them what's going on, the "might" send you the recovery discs free, but if not, they run $20-$50 from what I've seen. It's been a while since I've dealt with Toshiba.

[japper]

Thanks for the info...I received a link to downloadable Windows 7 on a seperate post.

As much as I don't like passwords for personal systems, I am thinking that it might be a good thing to set a 

password on the new hard drive that she knows, that way if she would  were ever get a hold of some malicious software, it most likely wouldn't be able to change the password on her again.

Does this seem like a reasonable assumption?

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

Keep in mind that that is not an official link or a Microsoft approved one. They don't put their software as a free download anywhere. I would follow George's suggestion.