Computer Repair Technician Toolkit

Working as a computer repair technician requires you to have access to certain utilities and tools that will be necessary in your day to day repairs.

Viruses and Spyware

About 75% of my clients call me for spyware and malware removal. I personally use Microsoft Security Essentials for virus protection since it does auto update and it is free. Not only does is this provide an antivirus solution it also provides protection from spyware. I also use Spybot and Malwarebytes for spyware and malware removal. Usually running Spybot will catch the majority of the spyware on the machine, Malwarebytes will finish up the ones that Spybot missed.

Booting into safe mode provides a somewhat clean environment in which I install all of the above software. Run a complete scan with Microsoft Security Essentials followed by Spybot and Malwarebytes.

Data Recovery

Occasionally a customer will bring me their computer which is having a blue screen or an occasional hard drive failure. The number one tool for recovering customer data is to use a Linux live boot disk in conjunction with a flash drive. This will allow you to transfer the data from the old hard drive to the flash drive. This data can be burned later on a different machine or placed back on the machine after the system is repaired. Occasionally bad sectors on the drive will prevent you from recovering the data. I use a program called HDD regenerator which will scan the entire hard drive and attempt to repair the bad sectors. This scan will take a long time so do not do it in a client's location.

OS install

Sometimes it may be necessary to reinstall the entire operating system. If the customer does not have the recovery disk included in their machine you may be able to use an existing disk using the key on their machine. Sometimes this will work sometimes it will not. I suggest gathering is a many OS disks as you can. This is something that you will not regret having. With the Vista and Windows 7 disks you only need one disk as the key determines what version gets installed.

Hardware

Occasionally you may have hardware go bad. Here's a list of parts that I suggest having on hand when going to a client's home.

Power Supply

Philips screwdriver

Flathead screwdriver

SATA cable

IDE cable

Molex to SATA power adapter

IDE drive

SATA drive

USB based DVD drive

USB cable

USB Based IDE/SATA adapter

computer screws

Flash drive

Personality

While working on a customer's computer occasionally the customer will want to sit and watch what you are doing. You have to remember that you are dealing with their personal information. Many people store financial information on their computer as well as personal pictures. So I find that being able to talk to your client while the scans are completing requires a personality. You need to be able to tell the customer what you are doing in a way that they will understand. Do this and they will refer you to many more people as well as call you back.