"We Are Not Responsible For Lost Data"

Have you ever taken your computer into a shop for a repair or an upgrade? If so, you will likely see their terms and conditions. A fixture is the phrase "We Are Not Responsible For Lost Data." That means that if your hard drive loses its data or a meteor hits the bench or EMP knocks out your drive, the techies can shrug and hand it back. What computer repair shops do not understand: there is a HUGE difference between loss of data (through forces outside of their control) and negligence (the techie Ghosted a blank drive image over your existing drive).
When the computer makes you agree that they are not responsible for lost data you can agree. If the techie sheepishly reports that they've nuked your drive, get the details in a quiet way:

Techie: "I'm sorry, but we lost the data on your drive."
You: "Gee, that sucks. Hey, what happened?"
Techie: "I was Ghosting your drive image when I found that I was Ghosting the blank image onto your old drive."
>>AWESOME<<

This is the moment that the techie is on the hook and so is the repair shop. They didn't lose the data, they took a negligent action that destroyed your data. While they thought they were off the hook for the tens of thousands of dollars of intellectual material that you put onto the drive, they are not.

A friend of mine took his computer to a local computer shop for a hard drive upgrade. He got a call from the shop admitting that the data was lost. They weren't willing to do anything for him. What they didn't realize: he's a lawyer and he knew the difference between force majeur and negligence. They offered him a free computer vaccuuming to placate him. He countered with a lawsuit for the lost intectual property he created and stored on the hard drive. Oops.

I guess computer repair shops will have to add disclaimers like "Not responsible for the knuckle draggers we hire." or "We will blank out your hard drive."