Software losses and hardware warranties

[aneeshm]

Imagine that I have a laptop of X brand , which states that it is warrantied for Y time . I install Linux on it ( nothing about any OS is mentioned in the warrenty ) . I have some very valuable data on the Linux system . I give it in for repair after something goes wrong with the CD drive .

After I get it back , I fing that someone has overwritten Linux and installed Windows on top of it . I have lost a lot of valuable data . Are these people responsible for the lost data ? Can I sue them ?



Note : This scenario is purely hypothetical . I don't even have a laptop . And I don't intend to buy one . And I'm not sue-happy , unless the data was something worth hundreds of thousands of Rupees .

[Unspeakable Horror]

Are these people responsible for the lost data ? Can I sue them ?

Yes.
I don´t know your laws. Maybe yes.

[Adagio]

I hate when they do that... something like that happened to me a 'long' time ago, back when I didn't know anything about computers (so I didn't have anything valueable on it) something went wrong (I don't remember the problem, but probably some fixable problem I guess) and I sent it to repair. The first thing they did was to format everything and reinstall Windows...
If they at least would have told me what they were going to do (so I could save important files etc) I wouldn't have been so mad, but they just did it without informing me

[Urban Ranger]

I would sue them at least on the grounds of negligence.