Windows 10 Forced Windows 10 update damaged my attached external USB hard drive

[kemical]

contrary to what these yahoos are telling you.

I think the original question was how to sue Microsoft.

I don't think at any point we said 'throw the drive away' although reclaiming any data can get expensive to the point where most folk don't bother..

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

@kemical: That's the short version. I believe she's looking for evidence from us experts on getting PROOF that Microsoft's updates killed her hard drive; and to recover financial damages involved in replacing the bad drive and paying to have professional data recovery done to get her stuff back. Also, from OP's post #34:
"...My biggest problem is that Microsoft techs won't even admit there was an issue with the Anniversary Update and recognizing external drives, yet alone admit that their auto updates make your system grind to a screeching halt and won't let you stop them or exit the process, at least it didn't in the Windows 10 Home edition at the time."
Taking to the Microsoft Store for data recovery failed, and she is trying to use the precedent from the Article that Norway offered up about the business lady who sued MS in Washington State, won, and collected $10,000 from her Judgement against them. She also has told us she has spoken to an Attorney about how to file the Claim, but due to the amount as a Home User, he obviously wasn't willing to take the case. Very few Attorneys will do this without trying to get up a Class-Action suit against MS; as I have mentioned. Mike and others have corroborated the difficulty of her achieving this goal is unrealistic. I've already mentioned that this has been going on for many years before W10 with earlier windows versions and no individual I've heard of has been able to successfully sue MS for damages from any of their updates. OP's original post was Feb. 2nd where she talks about litigating against MS to recovery damages. It will be many months more before she actually decides to do it, as she's only going through the first stage of professional data recovery, and that with a company that doesn't have a good track record. She now has info I gave her on the right places to send her drive to; so we'll see if she decides to do that or not. I am sure she will keep us posted on her progress..

BBJ

 

[Karen Grube]

I have been in consistent, productive conversations with Microsoft Customer Service, not Tech Support. As soon as the drive arrives back from DriveSavers, I'll call the other recommended providers and ask if they can do a "second opinion" free of charge. If not, I'll see if Microsoft will cover the cost. I think they may. They have actually been very responsive and very apologetic about what happened, though still maintaining that the damage was unlikely to be caused by the "shutdown" part of "shutdown and update." I realize no one is going to give me a definitive answer about precisely what caused the head crash, but so far everyone I've spoken with everywhere else other than Microsoft has acknowledged that removing power suddenly while a drive is in use can cause this kind of damage.

But to clarify, it's not that I want to sue Microsoft so much as I want whatever data recovered that can be recovered at no cost, if they will agree. So far, they haven't, and the one data recovery provider says nothing is recoverable. But that doesn't mean that a second opinion indicating that the damage could have been caused by removing the power suddenly but that some data is recoverable won't change their minds.

I'll let everyone know how this progresses.

 

[Karen Grube]

Hi Karen,

If you still want your data back, or at least some of it you need to send it out to Professional Data Recovery services, not either of the places above. There are only 2 services in the U.S. that are reliable, and both are very very expensive. However, they get results, and they use similar method to the ones used by the U.S. Government and many State and Federal law enforcement agencies.


2.) Kroll Ontrack in Minneapolis, MN
Data Recovery by Kroll Ontrack, LLC
Keep us informed.
Best,
<<<<BBJ>>>>

Kroll Ontrack agreed to examine the drive at no cost and provide an estimate of the recovery if any of the data can be recovered. I shipped the drive to them a short while ago. I'll let you know what they say. Thank you so much for referring me to them.

Karen