Restoring the Dead - Windows XP Pro

Well yesterday I decided to go for it and wipe out and restore from scratch the computer that had been my primary computer since mid-2003 until October 2008. It was running Windows XP Pro with 2 GiB of memory and a 320 GB SATA drive. Actually it has 160 GB and 80 GB IDE drives installed too that are disconnected.

The Windows XP Pro was eating itself. File ownership seemed to have been corrupted which caused programs to not install properly. Devices such as the LeadTek PVR had long ago stopped working and the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 80 (DVG 80) recently quit working. The DVG 80 was really the last straw since without it I couldn't capture the videos of my granddaughters. Heaven forbid!

In addition I had tried to just re-install Windows XP Pro on the disk using the slipstream disk described below. This resulted in a half pregnant install where each boot asked to run setup or boot to windows. The default was to run setup which resulted in a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). The problem was created by a virus called Norton GoBack sold by Symantec as part of my Norton System Works 2006 which I could not uninstall by itself or with the entire Norton System Works deinstall and Windows said I could not complete the install unless it was removed. Complicating the issue was that I have my WinXP Pro machine sharing a monitor, keyboard and mouse through a KVM with my new Vista 64-Bit computer. With the KVM there was the risk that while I was booting I might not be there to select boot to windows rather than run setup and then BSOD.

Before starting, I decided to "slipstream" my original Windows XP Pro 2002 all the way up to Service Pack 3. To get instructions for this I Googled "slipstream xp sp3" and found the article "How to slipstream windows XP Service Pack 3 to Create an Integrated XP Setup Disk with SP3" at HowToHaven. I followed the steps in the article blindly, but carefully to create two XP Pro SP3 install disks, the extra one just in case the other one didn't work.

To start the re-install process, and remove any doubt whether I wanted to do this I removed the primary partition, created a new one for the entire disk and formatted it as NTFS. To do this step I used the Live version of Gnu Disk Partitioner (GParted 0.4.5-2). Live GParted is Linux based and boots up from a CD quickly. What a nice simple program to use and very similar to the last version of Partition Magic I used years ago. First step, success.

Then I tried installing XP Pro. It booted to the CD and looked like it was going to go smoothly, only to fail when it said it couldn't find any hard disk installed on the system. Another quick trip to Google revealed that Windows didn't recognize that I had SATA support and I needed the to download the drivers to a 3-1/2 inch floppy and use them early in the install process. I went to the Asus web site and downloaded all drivers for my A8V motherboard. One of them had a make disk utility for doing what I needed. That's when I found that coming by a 3-1/2 inch drive and finding a disk for it was no simple feat. Found some old Linux boot disks and other stuff and tried formatting and making the disk in my wife's HP desktop running Win XP Home but it wouldn't do it. In a panic I decided to break out my old Windows 98SE laptop and see if it could deal with the 3-1/2 inch floppy. First thing it told me was the disk was locked which was probably why my wife's computer couldn't do anything with it, but it was too stupid to tell me.

The second attempt installing XP Pro with SP3 went pretty smooth. Pressed the F6 key when prompted and inserted the 3-1/2 inch floppy to load the SATA / RAID drivers. Holding my breath until the prompt came up asking for my product key into which I entered my original product key and in about a half hour I had a "working" Windows XP Pro computer again!

Fixing the network setup (it wanted a dial-up connection?), was a first step and then quickly re-installing Norton Internet Security 2009. These steps went very smooth.

I created some accounts and decided to end the day on a success and would install all the other stuff later.

The first thing I noticed this morning was that the video was honked up. Dragging a window would cause it to be redrawn slowly. I looked at the Device Manager and the video device had a Yellow Question Mark indicating it didn't know what it was, and had decided to use a generic VGA driver. There was another Yellow Question Mark indicating there was another unknown device. Opening the case and pulling the card revealed I had a eVGA e-GeForce 6200 AGP card with 256 MB DDR memory. I went to the evga web site, downloaded and installed the latest driver. Sure enough that fixed the problem with the video.

After that, I thought I would install the LeadTek WinFast Multimedia Software Pack which hadn't worked for a couple years now. This fixed the second Yellow Question Mark and now all the installed devices seem to be recognized.

Next I installed Nero 6 which came with my Pioneer DVR-710 DVD recorder. The drive itself seems to have been recognized during the Windows install.

Well, the Dazzle Digital Video Creator 80 along with it's MGI Video Wave 4 software seems to have installed okay. When I plugged the DVC 80 into a USB port Windows recognized it, loaded the drivers and said it's working properly. That's great news if it's true.

I am amazed at how much software I had installed on this computer:

• ULead Video Studio 7 SE
• ULead DVD MovieFactory and Cool 3D
• Pinnacle Studio 9 (previously had both 7 and 8 on it)
• Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 (7.0 on Vista Machine)
  
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 (7.0 on Vista Machine)
• Microsoft Office XP Professional 2002
• Microsoft FrontPage 2002 (Yuk!)
• Microsoft Visio Professional 2002
• Microsoft Project Standard 2002
• TextPad
• MyInfo
• WinZip 12
  
• ... and all those downloaded programs, oh my!

Despite having nothing but trouble with the Pinnacle Studio products I installed it anyway. I'm still disappointed they nickle and dime you to death for any add-on. Since I have never used them, I don't plan to install the ULead DVD MovieFactory and Cool 3D. Obviously, I have done a lot of Video and Photo work on this computer.

Well I'll be off the rest of the day, installing and rebooting.

Seagate Support Services [sic] Are Totally Incompetent

I can't believe over all this time, I've not properly uploaded my thoughts to this blog even though I wrote them up and saved them on my computer. Here's another example. The journal below documents an experience with a "high-tech" company. Though it's not given below, the story eventually did end without much help from Seagate. They now leave me alone and I try to buy Western Digital drives rather than Seaget or Maxtor (owned by Seagate).

May 9, 2007 - I buy a Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB SATA Hard Disc from Newegg.com for $79.99 with free shipping.

May 19, 2007 - I install the drive with no problems using the Seagate DiscWizard tool which is their version of the Acronis software to clone my disk. The drive is replacing the system disk on my primary computer.

Jan 18, 2008 - The computer was left on overnight to run a Norton Internet Security full system scan.

Jan 19, 2008 - Awake to find a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) telling me that Norton GoBack was having problems with insufficient disk space. Eventually found that yes in deed, the Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB SATA primary hard drive had failed. I owned the Seagate ST3320620AS 320GB SATA 246 days, 35.1 Weeks, 9 Months or 0.68 years or a total of 5904 hours. I estimate, based on my typical usage including the holidays was 1019 hours. I begin using my laptop as my primary computer.

Jan 22-30, 2008 - I contact Seagate Data Recovery Services (SDRS). I vacillate on how to deal with the RMA saying ship it to Mcallen, TX and SDRS saying ship it to Santa Clara. I explain until I am blue in the face, I need everything off the drive so that it is bootable. Eventually the SDRS salesman says "Just send the drive to us and we'll take care of it", which convinces me to send it to Santa Clara, CA. I go online and get RMA 1000611097. The fact that Seagate has no means in their system to send a failed drive to SDRS and have the physical hard disc replaced under warranty was my first indication I was dealing with bureaucratic incompetent entity.

Jan 30, 2008 - Under RMA 1000611097, I send the drive to Santa Clara, CA using UPS 2-day air which cost me $69.

Feb 5-7, 2008 - I receive word from SDRS that yes the drive has failed. They say that the data can be recovered; it will take 2-3 weeks and cost approximately $700 or more under the basic data recovery service. I am then informed that all they can recover is the data, and they can not fully restore the drive and make it bootable because of Microsoft licensing issues. This is strange since on May 19, 2007 I had used their software to clone my original disc. I come to the conclusion that SDRS serves no service to mankind other than to frustrate and lie to their customers. When I tell SDRS I do not want them to do anything to my drive and ask them to return it to me, they tell me it will cost $15 for them to ship my drive back. My reply is: “I will pay your money grubbing incompetent company's bloodsucking $15 tomorrow from work. The costs of this useless waste of money and time have now exceeded the original cost of the brand new disk. Let your corporate management know that the service I have received in this very frustrating time has created a lifelong vehement enemy of your company only rivaled and equaled by my opinion of Microsoft. I shall share my opinion on this experience with anyone who will listen throughout the rest of my professional career.

Have a nice day!”

Feb 12, 2008 - I buy another ST3320620AS from Newegg.com for the same price of $79.99.

Feb 15, 2008 - I try to use the Seagate web site kludge to get another RMA, this time with the pre-paid return option. The RMA number is 1000646443. I then find out that for some reason, this is not the pre-paid option but the basic option that they will only send me a new drive after I send them the bad disc. I call customer service to explain the problem. They are having “computer problems” and they can’t fix it right then, but they take my credit card information and promise the matter will be taken care of when the system becomes available and I will receive confirmation then. I never hear anything from Seagate again until June 6, 2008.

Feb 26-Mar 3 - I find a local computer repair service that comes to my house picks up my computer replaces the Seagate disc with the new one I bought from Newegg.com on February 12, 2008. The entire disc is restored with no data lost and is bootable all for $120. After returning the fully functional computer and the failed drive, we install the failed drive in an external USB enclosure. Powering the drive on then off and back on again, we’re able to read and write to failed drive. It was nothing more than a sticky drive that Seagate had wanted to charge me $700+ to partially copy the data off.

Jun 6, 2008 - I finally recover from the frustrations of dealing with Seagate’s “Customer Service [sic]” incompetence, I decide to return the drive for warranty service. Knowing that the Seagate web site is frustrating I call Seagate Customer Service [sic] and explain that I want the $19.99 Advanced Replacement service where they send me the replacement. first The RMA number is 1000920148.

Jun 9-21, 2008 - I receive the replacement disc (June 13) and return the failed disc via the prepaid UPS shipping package that was included with the replacement disc. The failed disc is sent via UPS on June 21 and received at Seagate’s Mcallen, TX facility on June 25, 2008 at 12:16 PM. The tracking number was 1Z830E7V9051423442. Matter closed you would think.

July 11, 2008 - I receive two email messages from Seagate. One message is an acknowledgment for receipt of the failed drive. The second message (sent June 10) from Seagate E-mail Support has the subject: “Seagate Advanced Replacement Reminder [Incident: 080710-001485]” informing me that it is approaching the 30 day period and if they do not receive the failed hard disc before that time they will charge my credit card $179.20 + Taxes. My reply, also sent to Seagate Investor Relations (stx@seagate.com) and the SDRS salesman, was: “I have no idea why Seagate appears incapable of proper record keeping. There were three RMAs, two of which were canceled. The only active RMA (1000920148) was the one I returned the drive under using Seagate's pre-paid UPS packaging. It appears that through poor record keeping receipt of that drive was placed against RMA 1000611097 by Seagate receiving.

I have returned the hard drive covered under this RMA using the packaging Seagate supplied with the UPS charge pre-paid. The text portion of the receipt from Seagate for the UPS package is given below. You are not to charge my credit card any additional money. Should you charge my credit card, I will notify the credit card company that you have knowingly incorrectly charged my credit card. I will then notify the Colorado Attorney Generals Office of your poor business practices and ask them to investigate on the behalf of the people of Colorado.. I demand positive acknowledgment from Seagate on the closure of this matter.

The incompetency and anti-customer behavior I have seen in dealing with Seagate "Customer Service" is astounding and almost breathtaking.”

I then went to work, at a large Defense Contractor in the Denver area, and told five people (plus those not involved in the conversation, but overhearing it) in a discussion forum what had happened. I then shared the messages above, (July 11 and February 7) which contain my replies, thus continuing to fulfill my promise of February 7. The universal response was “what happened to Seagate they used to be just a good company”.

July 12, 2008 - I awake to find yet another email message from Seagate informing me that “Your order has shipped!” It is amazing Seagate manages to stay in business. I have no idea why they are sending me another ST3320620AS hard disc, if they are truly ignorant enough to do so. The tracking number is 1Z830E7V4245100704. I haven’t decided what I should do with the additional hard disc; keep it, or just refuse to receive it. I have however, concluded that mankind must be protected from such incompetence and that I need to warn the world by posting this to my Blog!

I remain astounded, breathless and amazed that Seagate is actually capable of staying in business.