Topic doesn't suggest hardware I know. But bear with me for a few. Skip to the 5th paragraph for the hardware details.
I had a death in my family recently and the things leading up to the funeral made my freelance work suffer. The 9-5 had to take priority as it pays for everything.
I moved hosting providers and started to review old tickets. Get rid of old machines and make contact with clients that had open tickets to ensure things were resolved, or move towards resolution.
One client replied that the original issue was not resolved. I realize now that part of the problem is the client isn't tech savvy enough to realize that antivirus updates need to be done whenever the AV company releases an update. You don't just update once and never need to again.
Now that the premise is set, here's what happened. Based on the problem description I did a remote connection to check the issue. Installed an anti-spyware and left it running. Client called back to say the machine isn't starting. Photos sent to me show it at s boot menu. Instructed client on getting in the BIOS. Hard drive not recognized.
Collected the laptop and took out the drive. This was one where you have to remove the motherboard to get to the hard drive. Tedious. Checked the drive externally and it's dead. Doesn't spin up or anything.
While I know this happens, the strange part for me is I did a SMART test on the drive when I originally did the remote connection. There were no errors. Due to the cost of a new drive I didn't charge for any of the work done. I told the client though that due to how tedious/difficult it was to reach the drive, I'd have to bill going forward.
The state now is that the client seems upset with me. Basically stating that the reason the drive died is because of the scan and my remote connection. Based on the client's knowledge I have no idea how to convince them otherwise. All they're saying is it would have been fine if it died on them without my connecting and how much they regret answering my follow up mail from the ticket system.
Now I can't educate the client any more than I've done. Matter of fact, and ironically, my own system died this morning. I shut it down and was booting back up to send an email and it won't turn on. I explained all of that and it makes no difference to the client.
At this point I plan to put a loaner drive in the laptop until they purchase a replacement - just to satisfy the customer service side. But I'm rather wary of the client as a result.
What I'd like is some feedback from the tech community on your thoughts and how you'd handle it. I know that I'm not obligated to assist with a loaner drive, but it's part of my customer service based on the client relationship, history and conditions under which the failure may have taken place. And the thing that I find most strange is the sudden failure of the drive instead of a gradual decline. Anyways. Waiting on the replies to see how the community would deal with it. Thanks in advance.