Call Kurtis: Computer Failure - The One Thing You Should Do

MODESTO (CBS13) - A Modesto woman took her computer in for repair but when she got it back, it still didn't work. When the laptop wouldn't start, it was time to call Kurtis.

She couldn't figure out why her computer wouldn't start and she certainly doesn't think she should have to pay more money when it's still under warranty!

"I had a lot of his baby pictures on the computer that I did lose," says Casey Rogers, Modesto resident.

Precious photos gone from her hard drive forever.
The computer repairman couldn't bring them back and installed a new hard drive.
But now she says the computer won't even start.

"There's no windows on it, none of the Toshiba software that originally came when I bought the computer, nothing's on it. It's completely wiped," says Casey.

The hard drive is empty. The Best Buy repairman told her she needed what's called a "restore disk" from Toshiba.
But Toshiba wanted $24.99 for one, even though her laptop is still under warranty.

"She said it's not her problem and she can't help me," says Casey.

Right when you buy that brand new computer, computer expert Yasar Chaudhary says it prompts you to make your own set of recovery disks, which has all that basic data you need to start up a computer.

"Most consumers that come to us, they have no idea their computer has a built in recovery system," says Yasar Chaudhary, President and Owner of Computer Experts.

And he says 90% of his customers skip past that step, never making their recovery disks.

"Most users they're trying to click x,x,x,x and close out of those steps," says Yasar.

We contacted Toshiba.
In an email, they confirmed what our expert told us, "All Toshiba laptops ship with the system recovery media partitioned on the hard drive of the system. Toshiba recommends its customers create recovery media using the included software utility to ensure they can restore their system if the hard disk recovery partition is damaged, deleted or if the hard disk malfunctions. Toshiba is confident this is the best practice and will continue to deliver recovery media this way. We are going to provide the customer with the recovery media. "
-- Eric Paulsen, Public Relations Manager

After we got involved, Toshiba agreed to waive the $24.99 fee, sending Casey a free set of restore disks.

"It would feel good for all of it to be done and have my computer back," says Casey.

So if you blew past that screen to make your recovery disks, you're not out of luck.
You can make them now!
Depending on the type of your computer, most systems will have a "recovery media creator" under the "start menu."