[nffc]

I agree (but I don't work on PCW helpline any more, and incidentally some of the users have had PCs for years but don't know where the CD ROM drive or start button is; I kid you not) - without spending a while faffing with various fixes none of which the user is going to appreciate and will take eons to apply, you can often fix a problem faster by reformatting than finding out the real problem and directly fixing it. It is substantially different fixing a PC that is in front of you compared to one that is over the phone, or over the internet when you can't remote desktop in.

[That, and the PCW helpline is a hardware line, where the priority has to maintain the hardware - you can either test first and if they're clear then recover, or the other way round. Remember it takes about five minutes to initiate, and about 15 minutes to run automatically, a hard drive based recovery, but a software fix that is by no means guaranteed is more open ended. If problems persist after a reformat and no additional changes have been made to the S/W build then it is H/W related and can be addressed.]