Welp here we go... https://forums.windrivers.com/
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Paint your old laptop!
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Welp here we go... https://forums.windrivers.com/
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Paint your old laptop!
I work on the phone support dept of a large computer mfr.
When we get someone on the phone that really hosed his machine we take a few things into account.
1. attitude
2. How fubarred it is
3. when the last backup was done.
IF #1 is bad they are going straight to the fdisk option.
I had a lady on the phone who demanded she knew more than I and was real arrogant. Brand new machine and she loaded crap on it that had a virus. She whined and whined about how she loaded all this software so I fdisked her, when we were done she asked me for a Win OEM number, I told her it was illegal for us to give this info over the phone. This got her real pissed but it just goes to show that you should be nice to the person on the other end of the phone.
Windows reloads just make me salty, i usually try to sit there and hunt the problem down and most times that works fine, but we only deal with business computers so sometimes we dont have the element of time and just have to say screw it and reload. I will say that norton untilities "windoctor" is a badass program that can also save some time. I think i hate reloads the most because in the event that i cant salvage any files, the customer wont get mad about having to retype letters or redo spreadsheets that take hours and hours, but they got really hot when we couldnt recover the 3MB bmp picture of their grandchild on the desktop.
(Also i know this is off topic and all but i gotta share this one. Last week i had to go to a client and do a simple modem install, so i get there and go to shut down the machine, 3.5 minutes later the system actually powered off after windows finished playing the entire (or close to entire) theme from "annie". I was about in shock, so then i put the modem in, start it back up and damnit another 2+ minute song plays on startup!! in the meantime i was asked why the computer takes so long to load windows.. i had to really hold my tongue for that one. So i politely as i could told her that 3 minutes songs and 3MB bmp's tend to slow windows 95 down quite a bit... especially when its a P133 with 32MB ram. I could have kicked her cause for the rest of the day i had TOMORROW stuck in my head.)
The primary thing we tell our customers is...BACKUP...BACKUP...BACKUP! Don't wait until you have a problem and then try to recover your files. This is the whole reason for having scheduled backups done on a regular basis. How often you do it should be decided by the Sytem Administrator.
You don't need to backup the entire system...just the files that were modified or added since the last backup.
If the registry or whatever is hosed up, it usually is because of disk drive problems. I realize that some of you will strongly disagree, but I will always FDisk and Format a questionable drive and run a complete surface scan before installing anything.
Just my two cents worth.
DonJ
If the computer belong to me and it gives me lip (trouble) I fdisk. No questions asked. After working on other peoples computers, I don't want to have to try and fix mine. I burned an image of my os with the most important progras to a CD. When I fdisk, I just Disk Copy to the hard drive.
If it belongs to a customer I will try to salvage the OS. But I also have to find what is most benificial to client. I will not work ten hours on a machine because I could never charge for all those hours. I am too busy to do a lot of charity work. Although if the client is nice, I will go out of my way to help and salavage his data.
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www.el-mono.com
I'm a tech for Gateway. we get 15-20 systems a day if i was to sit infront of each one for 2 hours each. we would be quoteing a 4 week turnaround time. we only have 2 techs. we do our best to fix clients software problems. but as most know most software problems people run into aren't easy. there are a few easy ones and we kick those out. but spending 2 hours on software problems when in gateway systems are covered 3 years in warranty for software in hardware. i'm not gonna spend that much time and the customer pay nothing....
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We do backup data. we pop a network card in the system and use ghost to make an image on our 100gig backup system. then use ghost explorer to pull off the data the client wants and burn it to cd. we charge 79.95 per cd. we also can back it up to zip disks or tape. depending on what the client wants.
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yes software is covered under warranty. =)
but only software provided from gateway. we don't work on any 3rd party software.
The only difference between my answer and many of your is simple..If i have to format and reinstall a customers machine, i OFFER to make them a cd with all of their data..(charging them of course...for the price of the cd and time it takes to make it)...sometimes 2 or 3 cd's may be in order...but i try to export all their mail and fav and blah...blah blah....maybe im too nice.
What you do in such a situation definitely depends on the given circumstances. It's a trade off. Simply dumping and reinstalling may take much less time and in the process it may fix a bunch of other garbage too. This works well for people who have backups of their data. For those that don't, you give them the facts. You can tell them that you can dump \windows, \Progam Files, and \whatever, and reinstall. Tell them this will likely take much less time (and therefore cost less), but they will have to reinstall apps, though they will still have most of their data. Or tell them that you can attempt to fix it without reinstalling, at your normal hourly rate, but that it could take a very long time. Tell them to take their pick. It has been my experience that 99 out of 100 people take the cheap way, but at least you gave your *paying* customer the option.
C0ry..
We do that or zip disks or tape.
not the entire drive though. just want the client wants. they give us directorys and we safe em. just 79.95 per cd.
C0ry..
We do that or zip disks or tape.
not the entire drive though. just want the client wants. they give us directorys and we safe em. just 79.95 per cd.
Every situation is different, it's a judgement call every time.
Will the system boot at all?? If not, why not?? I've seen systems that wouldn't boot because the system files had been deleted, possibly by a Trojan. SYS'ing the C: drive fixes that problem and the customer is happy as can be.
Does it boot into a BSOD?? Then it's time for 3R -- Repartition, Reformat & Reinstall.
Sometimes, just removing the 15 icons from the system tray clears things right up and the computer runs well again. It's truly amazing to me how little most folks know about their computers. I have to explain to them slowly how every icon in the system tray represents a program currently bogarting their RAM and swapfile, and how it's a BAD idea to have those proggies loading on boot.
If they're running Win98x, then sometimes running the system file checker that's part of "System Information" utility will find corrupted files and restore them from the original CD...of course, if the customer doesn't have a legal copy of Win9x, well, they're screwed...and you'd be amazed at how often that is exactly the case. https://forums.windrivers.com/
As for nuking a HD and reinstalling Windoze...customer has to sign a waiver in advance clearing me of any & all liability for lost data, damage to HD, or the vague possibility that their POS might somehow become possessed by the unclean spirit of Richard Nixon. https://forums.windrivers.com/
*Personally* -- I repartition & reformat my system once a year, whether it needs it or not. Nuke the drives, FDISK/FORMAT & run a thorough surface scan, then reimage the HD's using Ghosted backup images. This revents bit-rot and registry corruption from raising my bloodpressure...as a tech, I cannot stand a machine that won't behave...just the way it is.
.High*Ping*Drifter.
Professional Deviate-at-Large
"And a thousand, thousand slimy things lived on...and so did I."
Well, I am an admin at my company I find that getting yourself a good 30Gig hard drive and then create images for different departments and computers and then ghost them onto the HDD, then when all goes to Kaos, you can just boot to dos (win95-98-me) and copy the stuff you need over. And reimage using the ghost image file saving allot of time. With NT just take the bad HDD or currupted system to a different NT system and again copy and Ghost. Why mess with it when you can just let it do it's thing with little fuss.
[email protected]
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I was thereff, but now I am a coach, should I change my license to coach?
I always give the customer the option, if I've been at it for 1 hour, and made no head way (on all 15 compliants,) then i will recomend nuking it. Especialy if they insitst their is a problem, but i cant recreate it, serves them right from not beliving me! On my presonal system, if it pisses me off it gets nuked. Just pop win back in, and restore from my magic CD! everything is happy fresh install, and only took 1 hour to do! I think me and my comuter have established good comunications, Im the boss, if win trys to rebel, it DIES. Havent had a single problem with win since the first week of ownership (setting up a tri-boot system)
Honeslty in the long run a system wipe is good for a system, gets rid of all the crap you forgot you had, recover lots of disk space, and get stability back. Why not do it and save the cutomer $$ they happy, your happy, and the repair can be completed in the same day as they droped it off (they really like that!!!)
Tech666, in five years you have only reloaded the OS once? What kind of machines do you work on? I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but it seems a little unrealistic to me. A consumer takes home a Presario (POS) and they, along with their entire family, proceed to install a 1001 games and software titles, get into every nook and cranny of their OS, uninstall 1001 games and software titles, download umpteen software upgrades/patches, install demo software, have Banzai Buddy and Virtual Girl running, and everything under the sun is loading at startup. They also have a CDRW drive, a scanner, and their business files are on this machine. The machine stopped booting into normal mode so backing up onto CDR media is an impossibility. Did I forget to mention that there is only 50MB of hard drive space left. "This machine is only three years old. What do you mean I should consider getting another machine?" I'm not saying that the machine is toast, but the customer has outgrown it. Trying to figure out what is locking the machine up isn't impossible, but many long hours would be involved in getting it to work again. It is simply easier and less costly (both for the customer and the store owner) to save what can be saved (we can hook up their drive to our server and copy all the data onto CDR)and start from scratch. The customer can pick and choose what data they need back on their drive and it was quick and painless. To say that you would spend hours of time trying to get everything working again without reloading would be ludicrous. We get this scenario fairly frequently and not just on Presarios. I know my fair share of how the operating system works, but I don't write programs so I can't waste too much time trying to fix something that I know is never going to work correctly unless I wipe it out and start over. I will admit that this response is prompted by experience. I've been the Tech that thinks it will only take a few more minutes. Believe me it never does. Yes, it is nice to solve a problem so you'll know what to do next time, but next time happens too rarely to justify that much time.
I work for 1 of 3 Tandy Computer Service Centers (Radio Shack) in North Carolina. We are one of the largest In-Warranty repair centers in the US. If someone makes it, we repair it under warranty (arghh)!
On average I have repaired about 40 computers a week now for 3 years. That's nearly 6,000 computers; for Acer, Compaq, HP, PB, Fujitsu, IBM, Sony, etc....... desktop, laptop, you name it. We turn no computer or printer away, in warranty or out of warranty. Hell, I've even worked on TRS 80's!!!
All these manufacturers have Recovery disk! Compaq Quick Restore, PB Recovery Disk, Acer CPR, etc... On a daily basis I see numerous $2,000 computers with the OS trashed. By policy we have to get permission from the customer to "restore the factory software" back to like the day they bought it before we can touch the Hard drive! Know how many ask we save their info? I'd say about 1 in 50!!!!
Most computer owners seem to have more money than sense and use their "toy" for pictures, playing games, and surfing! They could care less about "wiping out everything'!!!
The one in 50 that does use a computer for important business has already made backups, knows how to reload software, and has no problem with starting over with a clean OS!
Of those on the fringe, we offer a flat rate fee to backup the entire HD or specific data for 69.95 onto CD with the understanding it is all the HD or just data. In any case they will have to reinstall the programs. Each additional CD is only $5.
WE HAVE NEVER, NEVER HAD A COMPLAINT! The beauty is, when they reinstall the programs and can't figure out where to put the data back to we charge $45/hour to put all as it was! They rarely flinch and we are not without a heart because we are consumers too! We know the scenario, and will help anyone to the max, as long as they are not raving, yelling maniacs!
If the people are novices and don't have the money we will go out of our way to help them anyway - it's called "customer loyalty" - they will come back forever!
The point is - most people could care less and those that do, have backups!
We aren't fools either! Most software fixes are easy if you do some searching and this usually takes less time than a restore and all the other that comes with that!
We do have an advantage though! We have password access to all these manufacturers websites of known problems, drivers, flashes, etc...
I have learned much over the past 3 years that I never knew or saw as an independent tech!!
§La§H