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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

You Want To Do What To My Computer!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Often I get into the middle of a mess created by another computer repair company, one of the most reoccurring situation is where someone takes their computer in for repair and the computer comes back wiped clean with a brand new installation of Windows installed and a DVD with all their files. Before I go on, I'd like to first say that while on a rare occasion it is necessary to completely start over, over 99% of all problems can be solved without reinstalling. Those who tend to reinstall your operating system have no clue how to really fix your machine. Anyone really can fix a computer that way. The art of computer repair is fixing the problem without reinstalling Windows.
Having your computer wiped clean is not only costly from the repair bill, but is more expensive in time. Once you receive your computer back from Billy Bob's Computer Repair, you will spend the next 2-3 evenings trying to reinstall your programs (if you can find the disks or downloads), finding and transferring all your files back and changing all the setting back to make the computer look and act the way you like it.
Do you know why Billy Bob can fix your computer cheap? Because delete and reinstall takes about 30 minutes of actual time, while actually fixing the problem takes: 1) skill, 2) a lot more time and 3) your patience. Where Billy can turn your PC out in a day, sometimes it can take a day or two to run all the scans and get your PC up and running again.
The moral of the story is: Treat you computer like your car, get the oil changed often and if someone tells you that your pc needs major repair, get a second opinion.