PC Fixes In A Flash
Written on October 18, 2009 by Kay
It’s becoming harder and harder to live without a computer and the Internet. Try going to college and turning in a hand-written essay without promptly receiving directions to the computer lab to type it out. Or try keeping in touch with loved ones across the continent without e-mail, IM, or Skype. Need a quick recipe for chicken adobe or can’t remember which side of your body is supposed to ache (perish the thought) right before your appendix bursts? Google to the rescue. There are so many wonderful sides to computing that when a roadblock or annoyance stumbles in our path, we can’t help but find ways to rectify it, paving a way to digital perfection. Let’s enumerate some of the most common PC annoyances and their fixes.
Hard Drive Data Rescue
I’ve been working with computers for over 20 years, and I count myself as one of the lucky ones, as I’ve have not experienced a failing hard drive or a crash (knock on wood). But I’ve heard and read about many hard drive horror stories with gory endings—like the infamous “my hard drive crashed and I didn’t even get a chance to make a backup!” In the case of having a safe place to store your backed-up data, a hard drive crash is merely an annoyance. But what happens if you’ve forgot or simply haven’t had the time for a backup of all your important files?
If your hard drive has failed to the point of inability to boot into Windows, you may be able to salvage your precious files by using a Linux boot CD. Such boot discs contain a Linux kernel (an operating system, essentially like Windows) that will load up into memory at boot time. Inside Linux, you may be able to perform copy operations, offloading your data before your hard drive is completely dead.
Also, if you start to hear the “clicking noises of doom” or your file names look like Russian characters, these are signs of oncoming hard drive failure—so backup right away. If you find that your hard drive simply won’t run any more, extract it from your case and pop it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Sometimes this has the miraculous effect of extending the hard drive’s life for a good 10-15 minutes, maybe just enough time to rescue your data.
I have covered hard-drive recovery in some detail here
Lost Instructions Manuals and Application Discs
I lack the necessary number of fingers and toes to count the times when I’d lost an instruction manual or a software driver disc. This usually happens when I do a clean install of Windows and need to figure out how to configure my printer; a cursory examination of said printer’s manual usually proves fruitless. And what about my sound card and graphics card drivers on CDs? They’ve must have upped and wheeled away.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, fear not. Most reputable manufacturers will store PDF versions of their manuals on their website, and hardware companies usually make their software drivers easy to download should you ever lose the CD.
Instruction manuals (cell-phones, PDAs, scientific calculators) are notorious for disappearing right when you need them the most. Sometimes they’re mistakenly discarded with the garbage. If you can’t find your manual on the manufacturer’s website, try safemanuals.com, a repository to over 1.2 million instruction manuals, a truly useful site.
Help Befuddled Friends and Relatives
It’s difficult helping people over the phone with computer problems. For one thing, you’ve no idea where they’re clicking, what they’ve installed, what services are running, and even if you ask them, it’s not likely that they’re going to know what you’re talking about. The solution is to remotely log into their computer, fixing the problem manually.
CrossLoop is a great service for remotely connecting to PCs. Simply download it, instruct your Uncle Bob to do the same, and have him read off the information on the Share tab so that you can log in. Couldn’t be easier.
