Recovery!
My roommates are exemplars of passive Russian software pirating. I’ve seen them install programs that cost hundreds of dollars to use once and toss. They ask their friends for copies of programs in different languages, or updates versions regularly. Their hard drives are awash with tens of gigabytes in programs and cracks (and viruses). I wonder how they do it all with limited bandwidth internet, it must be expensive just to download the expensive programs.
One of these (illegal) programs saved my hard drive and restored it to a readable state. I am at this very moment copying everything vital back onto my computer before formatting and returning it to the store for a replacement. Russian customer service is terrible, but if you ‘know somebody’ the service can be great.
Ха ха
It is really so in Russia. That is terrible, i agree.