list of guides/programs for a beginner

[billb87]

I was able to pass A+ certification pretty easily and I've been fixing friends computers for years. None of the local IT business's in my area want to hire me because I have no experience so I'm going to start my own. Anyone have advice on what a newcomer should read or a list of programs or boot cd's that will be helpful?

 

[16k_zx81]

I was able to pass A+ certification pretty easily and I've been fixing friends computers for years. None of the local IT business's in my area want to hire me because I have no experience so I'm going to start my own. Anyone have advice on what a newcomer should read or a list of programs or boot cd's that will be helpful?

The best thing you could do is some searches of the Forum. This will give you a lot more information than could be gained from answers to a single thread.

There are some excellent discussions on here of software and tools, plus various other 'learning' resources.

Using some intelligent keywords in the Search tool will get you started, and allow you to explore the areas that interest you.

 

[altrenda]

Spend a couple hours going through the threads on this site and every question you have about starting and running a repair business, and a lot you haven't even thought of, will be answered several times. The info you'll find is priceless.

here's a hint, though. The programs and boot cd's are the simple part. Fixing friends computers for free isn't anything like having strangers pay you to do it.

 

[FoolishTech]

I was able to pass A+ certification pretty easily and I've been fixing friends computers for years. None of the local IT business's in my area want to hire me because I have no experience so I'm going to start my own. Anyone have advice on what a newcomer should read or a list of programs or boot cd's that will be helpful?

Yes as stated programs are the easy part. (ahem, look into D7 and it will give you an idea of all the *other* programs you'll need on a daily basis, aside from boot cds and specialty job tools.)

A+ means absolutely nothing. At most every employer I've worked for we not only didn't consider A+ for any reason, we often laughed at people coming in boasting that as their big qualification. Seen too many A+ (and MCSEs for that matter) who couldn't format a hard drive if you asked them to. Yes, experience is key and getting it can be hard - another thing employers disregard is "experience" you've gained running "solo" unless you actually had a store front / known and reputable business.

Have you tried talking with the local IT businesses to "test" you out on a trial basis, or let you demonstrate your skills for them? When I had no experience I landed my first job by being persistent in communicating with the owners (I had spoken to them on more than a few occasions!) I would talk specifics about my skill set and offer to prove myself in any situation they wished to throw at me.

Of course I had an "in" because back then (mid-90's) computer gaming was getting good, the owner started holding LAN parties that I would come to as a way to make myself known, lugging my PC and steering wheel for Need For Speed competition. You might have a harder time finding your "in" with them these days but it's worth finding an angle if you seriously want to get hired and start working.

I only stress this because while starting a business is easy, making money at it can be difficult, to say the least.

Oh yes, and you WILL need to familiarize yourself with the tools of the trade before you can expect to "talk shop" with a potential employer (or start a business, for that matter!)

Whatever you decide to do, either way TN is a great resource so stick around and see what you can pick up. Don't forget to use the SEARCH function before asking particular questions!

 

[iisjman07]

Look at one of local shop' list of services and see how many you can do, how many you can't do at all, and how many you need to work on. It seems that a large proportion of work for computer technicians is:

• Virus Removal
• Hard Drive Replacements
• Operating System Reinstalls
• Data Recovery

Off the top of my head...
Virus Removal:

• can you identify a fake antivirus process and kill it?
• can you edit the startup items & services of a computer?
• can you remove a 'locked' (in-use) file?
• can you fix an infection that's blocking all programs you try to run?
• can you remove a virus without using a scanner?
• can you repair a disk mbr?
• what would you do if the computer is so infected it can't startup?

Hard Drive Replacements:

• can you diagnose if a drive is faulty (with reasonable assumption)?
• can you replace a faulty hard drive on a desktop and a laptop?
• can you format & partition a drive?
• can you recover data from a drive with significant numbers of bad sectors such that copying files fails?

OS Reinstalls:

• can you reinstall an operating system on a clean hard drive with no recovery partition?
• can you get it up to date and locate the necessary drivers?

Data Recovery:

• can you 'undelete' a file?
• can you recover a lost partition?
• can you recover data by scanning for file headers?

It might help you to listen to some of the older episodes of Podnutz. If you need any help either post here or PM me.

 

[ZenTree]

I'd echo the sentiments about just going through the forums, everyone here is in a working environment so the questions you see here are going to be the questions you will come across.

A couple of ideas:

1. Setup some virtual machines with saved states so you can quickly undo mistakes. Then look at
a. Infecting them with viruses and seeing how you can remove them. Learn some manual removal features (check out D7 for a good place to start) as this will not only improve turn around but also make onsite work a lot easier and looks better than just turning up and running scan after scan.
b. Look at doing fresh installations on the machines. Look at what is taking up your time (updates? finding drivers?). search the forums for similar issues and see what people recommend.
c. Look for common bsods and find the most effective way of solving them. For example, xp unmountable_boot_volume can be solved normally by a good old chkdsk. However, a business customer is not going to like waiting hours to be up and running. You can do a manual system restore and be up and running in a few minutes instead. Especially with business customers they don't care as much how much you cost, it's how quickly you can do the job. Also if bench space is limited and you're busy then there's nothing more frustrating than waiting for an epic chkdsk to complete whilst the jobs pile up.
d. especially with the above point, keep notes of useful things you find for fixes. no point spending an hour to find an amazing fix if you then keep having to google for it when it crops up a few months down the line.

 

[SouthernTech]

I remember seeing mentioned how one tech would save BSOD errors into their company website as they were encountered. That way, if on site, they could search the company website rather then Google, to avoid the "well, I could have done that" from the customer.

VM's are awesome to learn. Also, practice making images and backups.

 

[madmodder]

im kinda in the same boat as yourself, just starting up, i have no bits of paper to date but i do have some experiance fixing friends and family machines and a little phone support, Im planning to be live as a company as soon as i move ( buying a house in another part of the uk). Although im not fully up and running im still getting phones calls to help a friend of a friends, which i have now started to charge for, im shooting my self in the foot by doing it a bit cheaper than what i plan on charging, but im still charging £25 - £30 p/h on-site. You have had some good info already, my add in would be a common mistake that i keep making, dont make assumptions over the phone, more than once i have said to someone oh that sounds like common problem a, will have it sorted in 5 min, then 7 - 10 hours later after removing 20 viruses and reconstructing an o/s ( i know nuke and pave would have been quicker, but it was good experiance) luckely its for friends so no issue in it taking longer, my point, dont sell your self to one problem before you have seen the machine and run a few basic diags on it, always give a few ideas of what it could be and an over inflated time estimate, that way when it does end up being common problem a, people are far more pleased knowing it could have taken 8 hours and x amount of labour, but only took 30 min.

hope this makes sense

matt