Long long ago when you bought a new computer, the manufacturer provided CDs with the computer that would help you to restore the computer back to its original factory condition in the event that something went wrong. Nowadays – they don’t. They’ve changed over to providing you with an operating system utility to help you to make your own Recovery CD set. When you purchase a computer from us, we create that recovery set for you and give you the cd set – we include that in the purchase price. If you don’t purchase the computer from us, we can still do it for you. In either case – it’s the first thing that you should do to a new computer before you start installing applications or peripherals and before you start using it.
Once you’ve got this CD set, put them in a safe place along with all of your purchase information. A large size ziploc bag will work fine. Then throw them in your safe if you have one. A recovery set is one of those things that you may never use – but it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Most computers start out working fine, but then progressively over time become sluggish. At some point it may become so dysfunctional or mucked up that there is nothing to do but ‘wipe’ it and start over. We call this a ‘wipe and rebuild’. What it is – is restoring your machine back to the state that it was in when it came from the factory. Which means that it’s not going to have anything on it that it didn’t have on it when it came from the factory.
Which leads to the next best thing that you need to have even if you never need it .. a backup. You need to back your stuff up every day. But that’s another discussion ..
So how do you know that it’s time to start over?
- Has your favorite application stopped working and even after you reinstall it, it still doesn’t work correctly?
- Has your computer slowed to crawl or become so sluggish that it is frustrating?
- Is there some piece of hardware that used to work that no longer does?
- Are you getting error messages?
- Does it reboot itself and display a blue screen with a lot of gobbly gook on it?
If you have any of these issues, we recommend that you try some of these options:
- Scan the computer for viruses and malware
- Clean the registry and temp files
- Run operating system updates
- If you recently added a new program or piece of hardware, remove it
Before trying to resolve problems:
- Always make a backup. Even if all you backup is your data
- Do one thing at a time – and then check to see if that fixed it before moving onto the next option
If you can’t resolve the issue, we can help you with it. Assuming the computer has no damaged hardware, we can restore it to factory for you. If it has damaged hardware – or is otherwise not worth fixing – we’re going to tell you it’s junk.
When it’s not worth fixing because it is old, worn out, or damaged, you need to get a new computer. We can help with that too. We sell the Lenovo product line.
Why Lenovo?
Because they’re tough. They’ve been around a long long time. It’s one of the brands most commonly used in corporate organizations. Lenovo was previously known as IBM. They are not always pretty but they’re tough.