Windows 10 Destroyed Hard Drives And Deleted Data, Claims Lawsuit

[Onkel Neal]

Windows 10 Destroyed Hard Drives And Deleted Data, Claims Lawsuit

More than 100 PC users in Illinois are suing Microsoft for over $5 million. They say they were pushed or forced into upgrading to Windows 10 by the company's aggressive marketing, and claim that upgrading damaged their computers.

Windows 10 was offered as a free update for a year after its release in July 2015. The class-action lawsuit claims many users had their hard drives damaged after agreeing to install the upgrade.

Now it gets interesting, although I would not say they "agreed" with the upgrade so much as they were coerced into the upgrade.

[STEED]

There were ways of getting that nagware off and kept at bay for those like myself did not want it. You get nothing free from big business and the bait of free Win10 did not work on me. Microsoft will probably say it was free and it was not forced on anyone, my money is on MS to win as they have lots of..$$$$$.

[Rockin Robbins]

I'll bet if I read the Windows 7 EULA Microsoft has the right to install upgrades as they wish and we "agreed" not to hold them liable for any damages. I'll check that out......

[ikalugin]

And sell you soul.

[Rockin Robbins]

From the EULA for Windows 7 Professional:

26.
LIMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES. You can recover from Microsoft and its
suppliers only direct damages up to the amount you paid for the software. You
cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect or
incidental damages.
This limitation applies to
·
anything related to the software, services, content (including code) on third party Internet sites,
or third party programs; and
·
claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, guarantee or condition, strict liability,
negligence, or other tort to the extent permitted by applicable law.
It also applies even if
·

• repair, replacement or a refund for the software does not fully compensate you for any losses; or·
• Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages.

Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the
above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. They also may not apply to you because your
country may not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or other damages.

[Rockin Robbins]

Okay, reading the article and based on what it says, I can't see any recoverable damages.

“Allegedly the Windows 10 installer genie checks the consumer’s computer for compatibility; it does not, however, check the condition of the PC and whether or not the hard drive can withstand the stress of the Windows 10 installation,”

There is no way to check "the condition of the PC" other than it works or doesn't work. Testing condition of the components is just not possible to a non-wizard with heavy-duty spells. Hard drives have SMART, but that does very little to tell you the health of the hard drive. Also there is no more "stress" to a hard drive from installing Windows than there is from installing Silent Hunter 4. This is a frivolous complaint that won't see the light of a courtroom.

Another of the plaintiffs, Robert Saiger, says he agreed to the upgrade but that Windows 10 stopped some of his software from working and caused data loss.

Whenever Windows updates, even if you are not changing versions there is a chance to break installed software. I lost my commercial storage business software when Windows XP updated in June of 2012. The software company was out of business. I had to buy new software for $3000 to fix it. Upgrades break things. That is just a fact of life, not an actionable offense.

Finally the last specific complaint in the article

He says the download failed over and over, damaging his computer. He blames the failed upgrade for lost data, lost revenue, and costs to repair his PC.

There are just too many possible causes of the download failing. The upgrade program, on failure, reset everything to the way it was before the upgrade before exitiing. I saw this work correctly several times myself.

However, if the download failed no changes would be made to his computer at all! The update program only begins execution after it is finished downloading and has been checked for defects and completion.

This guy has an impossible job ahead trying to prove that as part of the upgrade process, Windows 10 install deleted data files. The install routine does not format your disk or delete any files there outside Windows operating system files.

Finally, taking Geek Squad's word for ANYTHING is the height of foolishness. I just spent half an hour explaining to a customer that cloning his hard drive would, after he switched drives, result in all programs, settings, preferences, bookmarks, shortcuts, EVERYTHING working just as it did on the original hard drive. In fact, the computer would not even be aware that a switch had been made. It is possible that Windows re-registration would be necessary. That takes several seconds.

And backing up business computers is just required. If he's running a business computer without a backup there's nothing he can do to save himself.

And, as you can see in my post above, even if a judge feels sympathy for the little guy against the corporate behemoth, all he can do is award the cost of a new copy of Windows.

In fact, in order to prevail, somebody will have to assemble an actual case. There is no merit to this if the news report is complete.

[Skybird]

Do you guys still remember when last year Microsoft changed nomenclatura without telling people, and ruled that after 25 years of opposite meaning clicking the tiny little X-box in the top right corner of a windows did no longer mean to close that window or to refuse something, but to deliberately accept it and agree to it?



One must be intentionally blind on both eyes to not see how malicious and underhanded Microsoft'S ways have become.

Of course, they always apologize afterwards, after having sacked another load of unwilling W7 user. Sometimes a bit late, with comfortable delays. But always apologizing before launching their next coup to overcome people'S rejeciton to W10.

Can such polite people who always apologize for their planned, intentional misdeeds, really be so evil?



---

BTW, after the US Senate today, the US Congress also have agreed to a bill that allows ISP providers to sell people'S data like email content, health (!) and financial (!!!) data, websites visited and browser history to the highest bidder. That goes far beyond what Google, Facebook et all already are doing.

My tip is clear: say goodbye to health apps and especially any form of internet-based shopping and banking transactions. When your financial data become a freely traded object in the web, then fun is over.

Its all becomig worse and worse. So much for "progress".

[Rockin Robbins]

As much as I hate it, I see Tor in my future!

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

As much as I hate it, I see Tor in my future!

I've poked around with Tor for a couple of years, used FF as my primary browser while I researched Tor. I understand the basics of how it works, but am still concerned as to what my ISP sees. Not sure if being on satellite internet makes any difference either.

[Rockin Robbins]

In the early days of Spotify, before it crossed the Atlantic, I used Tor to tunnel through the Internet to Birmingham, UK, to pop out and look like a right proper Britisher, where I could subscribe to Spotify. Used that for three years before Spotify came to the US. I just emigrated to my local ISP across the pond and migrated my existing Spotify account.

All settings, saved playlists, login and every aspect of Spotify was preserved. Some music available in Europe didn't survive the transition, although if I go log in from Birmingham I can listen to it again.

Problem with Tor is that it is beastly slow!

[Skybird]

Tor is counted as compromised these days, as far as I know. One has to assume that several intel services - prime candidates are USA, GBR and ISR, maybe also Russia - can read it.

I tried it some years ago, for half a year, it came at the price of really massive slow-downs. The using of it, I mean, not the decyphering. I hated to use it. If your life depends on it, you accept such slow downs. But just for ordinary surfing: such low speeds (worse than a 56K modem back in the days...) are a bad deal.

But if your life depends on it: do not use Tor, it most likely is comrp0rmised. Simply avoid electronic communication at all. I mean, if your life depends on it, its your life you are about, right?

[Rockin Robbins]

The cool thing about Tor is that it can be PERFECTLY secure and you still won't be. Every time you log into a site, you emerge from the shadows. On your computer, the deciphered content must appear or Tor is useless. A bad guy with sufficient knowledge can tap into the information after Tor has deciphered it for your display. Keyloggers can grab your input before Tor enciphers it.

Even if Tor is unconquered, it is still compromised because the worst piece of malware on your machine is you. Tor is a toy that is very interesting. But the EXTREME slowdowns make listening to music possible, but not much more data intensive tasks. Forget watching any video with Tor. You could download it if you don't care how long it takes, and then watch it later.

But then you have the unprotected video file on your computer, fair game for any simple malware (including Windows) to grab at will. But face it. You're probably not a target. One thing about unsecure systems is that everybody's everything is unsecure and available. You're basically hidden in a vast cloud of information, indistinguishable from anyone not specifically targeting you for other reasons entirely.

Everybody knows about the Target and Yahoo data breaches, involving billions of accounts. But not everybody knows that there have been no stories about people's money or computers being taken. Why? What was stolen could mostly be looked up in any phone book fifty years ago. We weren't worried about personal information in the phone book! We were just anonomized by the vast number of entries, rendered nothing but a "me too" among ten thousand other "me toos" nothing calling attention to any reason we should be stalked and killed.

We're way too easily offended and paranoid. The fact is we hide in plain sight and nobody cares.

[Mr Quatro]

Why do we still love computers after they have been so bad to us all these years?

[GT182]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

Why do we still love computers after they have been so bad to us all these years?

Because that's our nature. We love the things that bite us in the ass.

[acidoverkill001]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Windows 10 Destroyed Hard Drives And Deleted Data, Claims Lawsuit



Now it gets interesting, although I would not say they "agreed" with the upgrade so much as they were coerced into the upgrade.

Hell... I was forced! I lost every thing on my hard drive. When asked if i wanted to upgrade, I said no... several times. They still upgraded my system when I wasn't looking and without my permission. It really pissed me off!!!