Though this adventure starts with a failed Seagate hard drive and lost data on a Dell XPS, it ends with a complete backup and a content customer I think it’s important to recognize when a company — or even an individual at a company — does something well. Unfortunately, I rarely get letters from happy consumers. I choose to believe that people are too busy to get around to commenting when something goes well. So when someone does take the time to tell me of an experience that pleased them, I like to share.[ Not all tech support incidents end in tears; find out how one person picked up after MPC went out of business | Frustrated by tech support? Get answers in InfoWorld’s Gripe Line newsletter. ] Here, then, is such a note from Joe: Over Memorial Day weekend, the Seagate hard drive in my (relatively) new Dell XPS system automatically went into self-bricking mode on a restart. I called Dell tech support, and after walking me through the obligatory scripted troubleshooting process, the tech agreed to send a replacement drive with the OS installed and preconfigured for my PC. I asked the tech at the time if the drive could be recovered since it was obviously “dead” as a result of the firmware issue Seagate has with some of its 7200.11 drives. His answer was that it couldn’t be recovered. Because I had been lazy for a while and didn’t have a recent backup, I did some research on the Web and discovered that Seagate was offering to recover drives that had failed due to the firmware issue and, upon checking on their site, found my drive was one of those affected. I called Seagate on Tuesday and explained the situation. The tech gave me a case number and transferred me to i365, Seagate’s data recovery company. The support person at i365 gave me instructions for filling out the form and sending in my drive. I was told there would be no charge to recover the data if the drive had failed due to the firmware issue. They also explained that should it be determined the drive died for other reasons, I would be given a quote for recovery but was under no obligation to have the work done. I sent my drive in (shipping paid by Seagate). i365 recovered it and sent it back to me. The company also performed a sector scan and confirmed the drive’s health while they had it and backed all my data up to be held for 14 days, just in case something happened to the drive in transit. I had the drive and, more importantly, all of my data back the following Monday with absolutely no cost to me. This even though the drive was an OEM installed by Dell. I had doubts about purchasing another Seagate drive after this one bricked but, with their high level of customer service, I will definitely feel comfortable in purchasing from them in the future.Got gripes (or good words)? Send them to christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com. Technology Industry