Ooopps! Caught in the act... warrant is needless.
@arch_hack: Yes the procedures or we say SOP known as Standard Operating Procedures of being a technician is 90% right as you have mentioned but dealing with customer is something that needs to be improved. Consider your customer as "NO HOW" and as PC technician a much more knowledgeable, the customer should be informed about the problem before tinkering the HDD thing.
It should have a win-win solution to this matter.