WHY when you CALL a COMPUTER Call Center DO THEY say to REFORMAT your HARD DRIVE

Statistics say that most of the computer problems are caused mainly when the operating system crashes or due to viruses.The OS crash can be repaired,it is possible but if there are chances for viruses to be present in it then there goes your system again.It could get you into problems causing you to call the call center again. So to avoid all these, the simplest solution to soft problems like OS crash or viruses is to just format the computer.This is the easiest and very effective too.It could sometimes lead to data loss if important data is not properly backed up. That is the main reason why the call center friends answer us this way.But if its something got to do with the hardware failure,formatting the system is not an option at all.The failure point has to be detected and the appropriate hardware has to be replaced.Hope this helped much.

This happened to me before on several occasion. From my experience there is only one thing that I can say: the "tech" people usually have no idea what they are talking about. I have a feeling that nearly all these computer companies are outsourcing their technical support and usually the people on the other end of the phone line go by a list of answers that they have. When I try to explain something to them, they have no idea what they are even talking about 99% of the time. The answer that I get from most of them are the typical and expected ones such as, "you're gonna need to get your hard reformatted" or "you're gonna have to send it into us and we'll replace your hard drive" Because of all the bad experience that I have with these computer technical support, I've never really depended on them ever since I became more familiar with computers. I never buy extended warranties from any of them, because its just a waste of money I think. Those people really have no idea what they're talking about since they aren't trained an usually they are people who are working as outsource for the company, so that means they their accent might be hard to understand.

They thought reformatting is the way to go to solve computer problem. While I tend to agree with this one however by reformatting the hard disk will create an extra layer on top of disc, making the head harder and slower to read. Too many reformats will lead to having many bad clusters and will eventually destroy the hard disk. I think it's best to fix the problem without reformatting hard disk, like repair Windows installation. You can also defragment hard disk regularly to prevent errors.

I think you answered your own question in your last sentence. Reformatting your hard drive is the easiest solution. I have had a Dell for 5 years now and I have only reformatted it once because I was having trouble deleting stuff that I did not want anymore and I wanted to upgrade to windows xp anyway. I did not bother to call tech support.

I have 3 Dell Computers and I have been lucky I had to call them one time and the tech that I got didnt say anything about reformating. His first step was, as my system was running real slow, was to have me run msconfig then goto the start up tap and disable all items running at start up. low and behold this fixed the issue I only had to restart the items I wanted to run at start up ie my messanger programs. Before I went and turned on my messanger programs he had me look through the windows add / remove programs from control panel. I read to him what was installed and when we came to the MSN tool bar that had indexing on it and uninstalled that and after that was done all my problems were gone. so no no tech support ever asked me to redo my HD

Dells customer service since being out sourced to India, for lack of a better term sucks. I have three Dell Computers, and our last one we had fatal problems ever other day. It took me 11 months to get them to send us a replacement and them over another month to get it. Sorry that you are having problems with Dell. P.S. Though they say that their new employees know about computers, I was an IT major, they don't know anything, or at least the reps I have talked to haven't. I went through 38 different representatives of the company, plus over another 20 in Tech support. I know more than they do.

Lori, I can't help you there, I know nothing about hard drives. did you finally get it together? You need to get it to work right so it doesn't interfere with Myot, We don't wont that.

I have found that seems to be their generic answer. If it is something that they think will take too long to figure out, re-format your hard drive and it will set it back to the default standards. Then, it is a quick and easy fix as you said. Heck! When my partner can not figure out what is wrong with the computer, even HE says that he needs to wipe it out and re-format the hard drive. Grrr!!! I find this very frustrating! And you know...I have read about your problems with Dell. And I can't help but say...I don't think I will ever get a Dell now. Even your keyboard seems to be a lemon! ha ha Sorry, not funny! But you seriously have had many problems...I just really feel for you!

no, didn't have such tech support, i think the guy at the tech support just want do his job the easy way and not bothered about your real problem.

If it helps you are not the first person, not even the tenth actually, that I have heard say similar things about their Dell Computer, that they got a lemon. I've heard it a lot and how they have had to reformat their computer several times a year due to system crashes. I have no clue as to why their system keeps crashing but I hear it more from Dell owners then anyone else. So please know you aren't alone in that. I do agree that most tech support and other computer operators I know default to reformating. It's the quickest and easiest thing to do for many of them. Why should they look through everything and try to find what is wrong when they can be back up and running in a few hours time by just reformating. Where as if they have to search for the problem, find a way to fix it, and then fix it they could be at it for far longer. I'm not saying they are right but I can understand the thinking.

Formatting hard drive is the easiest way to solve problems. But that's what I dont like too. Since I assemble my computer myself, I have no choice but to format my computer myself. It's really hard to choose what files to keep and what to format as I am not able to backup all of the files. As for your problem, I would recommend you to use Ghost or Windows System Restore. This will decrease your need of formatting your hard drive as you can restore your computer to an earlier time when trouble comes.

You know why? because that's the easiest way to solve general problems about computers. And if i were the person that you talked to on Dell, i would say that to save time for me and because of my laziness too. But i am not that kind, i am just telling you my opinion on the situation. I think that's how it goes, for me.

I was onsite IT support for a MNC a few years back. Like most support dept, we were under-staffed and ill-trained. Most of the time we just do the best we can with what we already know, and move on to the next case. It's the ugly truth, but with 20~30 cases a day, you just don't really have 2 hours to sit down with a user. Sometimes we KIV cases for weeks, in the end. Formating your hard drive might up with being the quickest solution.

Maybe the Tech. support personnel you have talked to don't know anything that is why he wanted you to start from scratch that way you will be always assured that you problem will be fixed since you've got a clean install not knowing that it would be a burden on your part to reinstall all the software that didn't come with their system recovery cd.

What a crock! Unfortunately they will take the easy and fastest way out before doing what they should do! I would definitely make a complaint and perhaps even one in writing telling them what has happened. It should be well documented in their own system.

We were constantly reformatting our hard drive about a year ago, and all we needed was more operating speed and RAM. We now have a new computer and it happens to be a Dell. I don't even know how to talk to "a real person" with Dell. I'm glad you were helped!

I have had that happen. I refuse to reformat my computer unless absolutely necessary.It creates all sorts of problems with loosing data, etc. SI think some computer technicians suf=ggest the reformat as it is the easist way to fix a problem, for them....

It seems that they always say reformat your hard drive because it's the simplest thing to do for them of course not for us. They don't want to sit there on the phone for long hours trying to figure out where the problem is. Good for you to ask for the supervisor. I know the hassle about reformatting the hard drive because my computer crashed few months ago and I was devastated by all the work I had to do to put my data back. Thanks for the information next time a technician asks me to reformat I will ask to talk to the supervisor.

A reward for patience --------------------- Hi texasclassygal, Have you ever heard of a drive imaging program? It saves not only data files, but you entire operating system, settings, drivers, and all. I never get viruses or anything like that, thanks to my knowledge in security software, but I do test out new programs from time to time, in endless effort to stay current. Anything can happen when you do what I do. There are lots of Windows applications out there that may have compatibility issues with others, or just plain bad programming; next thing you know, your CPU is at 100% utilization, your cooling fans go into overdrive, and your mouse pointer is frozen. Some of these buggers are even bad enough to cripple System Restore, and really exacerbate things. Using a drive imaging program, such as Acronis True Image, you can get everything back exactly as it was when you had your computer right where you wanted it. You can even split an image into volumes of a preset size and burn to DVDs or CDs, which you can use to load the image onto a brand, new hard drive when the one you have finally fails. Sure, some problems can be fixed without having to blast the hard drive and load it all back up, but some can't. At the very least, you can create your own restore media, and save yourself hours upon hours of reinstalling, copying, and customizing if and when the worst does happen. Lots of luvs from California! -santuccie P.S.: Laughing at dumb jokes is still good for your health!!!

Usually the tech support would recommend that to shorten the call. As you say, it is the easiest solution. Tech supports have metrics that they have to follow and that includes the call handling time. Sadly, most reps would result to this and not provide good customer service.