Debate, and discuss, just dont Bore me.

I have always loved Dells (well since about the mid 90s).  And yesterday, I found I had an even better reason to love them!

My sister-in-law suffered a fire at her house a couple of years ago.  The house was a total loss (which is a shame - have you ever heard of the Hobbit House?  That was hers.)  By the time my wife and I got out there several months later, they had cleared the rubble and were fighting the insurance company over money.  In that rubble apparently was her laptop.

Too bad I told her.  The data may have been salvageable.  Well, lo and behold this year she found that she had not thrown out the laptop, and gave it to me to see if I could do anything with it.

Now this Dell is old.  The fire was 2 years ago.  The stupid thing only had 256mb of memory, so I suspect it was at least 3 years old when it was burned.  And it is not one of those sleek new notebooks that weigh about 1.5 pounds (this one clocks in at about 6-7), so it is rugged.  I was not really hopeful, but figured I would give it a shot.

I pulled the drive out, mounted it into an external USB case and plugged it into my laptop.  Brnnnnnggg!  Up came the drive with all the data!  ALL THE DATA!

I am very pleasantly surprised! I was able to recover all her data and saved it on to a memory stick (the drive was only a 60gb, only a quarter full - so a memory stick that holds all the data is cheap these days).

Over the years, I have had many good experiences with Dell.  I can add another one.  The computer itself is DOA, but the drive was protected by the "arm-breaker) case it was in and works fine!  I intend to give her the drive back to so she can have some temporary storage (I would not trust it for important stuff, just for a temporary back up).

Thanks again Dell!  You did it again!


Comments (Page 2)
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on Aug 04, 2010

Maybe you should be praising the HD manufacturer and not Dell...

on Aug 04, 2010

I wish they had extended the warranty which expires in October.

Yea, you would think.  I was disappointed once with their service.  When my Wife's keyboard on her laptop went out, they sent a new one and wanted me to replace it!  I did (so actually I learned something).  But I sure wish they would have done it.  I do not like touching stuff not under my warranty.

on Aug 04, 2010

SpaghettiMon

Quoting Dr Guy, reply 5
Quoting SpaghettiMon, reply 1Nice try Dell sales guy.

Nope, just a long time blogger.  You can check my profile.
 

Sorry, I was just being facetious. I wasn't really trying to make an accusation. It's just in jest.

Sorry for not seeing your facetious tags.  I have sent a message to the admins about that (and the sarcasm one). but they have not fixed that one yet.

Thanks for the clarification.  And no problem.  I once thought of getting a job with them, but found I like networks more than servers.

on Aug 04, 2010

Let me tell you all something about Dell.

Servers: Outstanding. never had much issues with them.

Workstations ( business class ):CRAP!

Dell has been plagued with Capacitor blowing issues for years. We have had to replace hundreds of motherboards on them since around 2004.

Within the last 2 months alone we've had a rash of Optiplex 745 motherboard capacitors blow.

Thank goodness that Dell lost the HPG Purchasing Contract ( a MAJOR HUGE one btw ) and we now have to purchase HP. ( time will tell on that one ).

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html

I will not argue about the servers (love them!) and I did put in the sub title, YMMV.  I know not everyone loves them and many for good reason (basically the same way I cannot stand compaq).

I was happy to see that my local School district dumped Apple and went to Dell, but that was because the clown who signed the last Apple contract was in their back pocket.  He left and so did Apple.  So Dell wins some and loses some - which is good.  if they ever get too big, that is when the consumer starts losing!

on Aug 04, 2010

DrJBHL
If you're smart....sell the story to Dell as ad copy for a new laptop for your s-i-l...

Never thought of that!  Hmmm...........

on Aug 04, 2010

I mostly meant drivers. Dells won't use any generic drivers. I once had to reinstall a Dell for someone who did not have the discs that came with it. Getting drivers was a pain in the a$$. I never actually had any experience with the hardware.

On laptops, I have that problem with almost every brand!  But I do 1 of 2 things.  Ubuntu or create a CD with them (for the ones that have a "wipe and restore" partition).  At least the drivers are not hard to find on the web sites (of HP or Dell).

on Aug 04, 2010

You will actually see proprietary dell motherboards in alienware PCs these days as well.

Well - as long as the holes line up, I guess the MBs can be as proprietary as they want.  15years ago I tried fixing MBs, but found it was just a lot cheaper to buy a new one.  Now on the slim line cases, that is sometimes a challenge!  So I try to stay away from those type from all vendors.

on Aug 04, 2010

the_Monk
screen resolution of 1680x1050

the Monk

So to summarize - you have a great screen you bought several years ago - and a new laptop to run it?

on Aug 04, 2010

Fuzzy Logic
Maybe you should be praising the HD manufacturer and not Dell...

True.  It is a standard Seagate (I have had problems with Seagates back in the 90s, but not recently).  Pretty much all laptop vendors use off the shelf HDs from reputable manufacturers (The School district I talked about in an above post that bought all those Apple computers?  Many were surprised to find IBM HDs in them!).

on Aug 04, 2010

My PC experiences:

 

1. Local brand 1992-1996 - No problems, good computer

2. Dell 200 Mhz PC 1996-1999 - Not a bluescreen or a problem with hardware whatsoever. I payed a lot for that one and got a lot back

3. HP/Compac PC that I got from work. 1999-2003 Worst piece of hardware ever created. If it went into sleep mode only a hardboot could wake it up. CD/DVD drive never worked and had to be replaced. Lots of other problems.

4. 2003 - present day. Dell again. No problems whatsoever.

5. 2008 - IBM (my first laptop). Worked fine, now used my a coworker with no problems

6 2008 - present day. Dell Latitude D830 laptop at work and home. Again quality. No problems whatsoever.

 

I know that there is always a bit of luck involved (no harddrive has ever crashed on me - except on a computer I accidentally dropped at work), but I will stick with Dell as long as my experiences are good. Have just delivered a spec to my boss for my next Dell laptop. 15,6 inches with SSD drive (yay) .

on Aug 04, 2010

Honestly the way I feel about PC's is that all of the manufacturers are kind of crap.

 

If you want a good computer, learn how to put together a computer, it's fun and pretty simple these days. It's all pretty much plug and play now. It's like building your own hot rod, only much cheaper and less labor intensive. Plus you'll be able to save money, and won't have to deal with manufacturer bloat ware and crappy BIOS if you build your own thing.

 

Only reason to buy a manufactured machine is to get a laptop in my opinion.

on Aug 04, 2010

SpaghettiMon
Honestly the way I feel about PC's is that all of the manufacturers are kind of crap.

 

If you want a good computer, learn how to put together a computer, it's fun and pretty simple these days. It's all pretty much plug and play now. It's like building your own hot rod, only much cheaper and less labor intensive. Plus you'll be able to save money, and won't have to deal with manufacturer bloat ware and crappy BIOS if you build your own thing.

 

Only reason to buy a manufactured machine is to get a laptop in my opinion.

Agreed 100% 

 

The only non monk-built systems I have are notebooks.  I even dumped the blade servers I used to run (due to constant heat issues) and built my own servers.  Great way to get really in-depth hardware knowledge which always comes in handy.

on Aug 04, 2010

I know that there is always a bit of luck involved

That is really the nut of the case.  Luck.  I might have had bad luck with a Dell and now not even acknowledge them.  But as it is, my bad luck has been with servers and not from Dell, so I do swear by them (and with the servers too).

 

I will say (for the storage crowd) that the best storage on the market, bar none, is NetAPP.  They are the best supported hardware in the business bar none! (and no I do not work for NetAPP )

on Aug 04, 2010

(and no I do not work for NetAPP

But you bought shares???

on Aug 04, 2010

I used to do Tech Support with Dell.

Needless to say, my job was to do everything I could to convince people it was their fault and not send parts when things were under warrenty.

I was part of the Your Tech Team contract, which you had to pay another $180 for. ALL just for talking to someone in the US.

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