Question about PC repair utilities

Starting to do PC on the side and I was wondering when it comes to reinstalling an OS, what do you do if the customer dosen't have there copy of the OS. Any suggestions. I am looking to see what items I will need. I already have PC repair toolkit, power supply tester, a bootable cd that ables me to access any dead computer. For spyware I amgoing to use Adaware, Spybot or windows defender (should i have this software on my flash drive, or install when onsite). For virus I am going to use AVG, PAnda or House call (same question, should i have this on my flash drive or install it when onsite). Any opinions on these utilities are appreciated

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Comments

theseman

I change utilities pretty frequently, whenever I find something I like more than my current stuff. They are all on my jumpdrive.

Right now for this sort of thing:

Spyware - SuperAntiSpyware + Xoftspy
Virus - BartPE boot disk with mcafee GUI wrapper and Kaspersky (I recommend AVG for people to use regularly themselves)
Hardware Test- Hirens for password recovery, HDD diagnostics + partition saving
Hardware Test2- Geeksquad boot CD running their script (Don't remember where I got this but its pretty sweet, geeksquad or not)

One of my most-used tools is my USB to SATA/IDE adapter.
I also carry CD's with all Windows vers and some Linux.

sthomas

Starting to do PC on the side and I was wondering when it comes to reinstalling an OS, what do you do if the customer dosen't have there copy of the OS.

Usually with Windows XP you won't have to do this very often. But there has been occasions when I had to reinstall the OS (or the costumer wanted me to wipe the hard drive and start from scratch) and they did not have the original CD that came with the computer. I would use my CD and there product key, then call Microsoft and explain what happened and they would activate Windows over the phone. It is a pain so I only do it when there is absolutely no other alternative.

For spyware I amgoing to use Adaware, Spybot or windows defender (should i have this software on my flash drive, or install when onsite). For virus I am going to use AVG, PAnda or House call (same question, should i have this on my flash drive or install it when onsite). Any opinions on these utilities are appreciated

Keep all of these on a flash drive if possible. But keep them as updated as possible.

theseman

About the re-install question:

You can backup the wpa file which contains the windows activation info and restore it afterwards (only works on repair installs I think)

Download RockXP so you don't have to do it manually.

Couple more good programs to carry:

Hijackthis (and browse to hijackthis.de to paste your logfile)
ccleaner (cleans up temp files, quick + free)
O+O defrag (faster than windows)

telecomops101

Thanks for all the advice. I am going to load all these utilities on my flash drive.

Another question.....If a computer is so bogged down with spyware, or a virus that it can't even boot up within a decent amount of time, can i boot up in safe mode and load one of my spyware and virus utilities in safe mode and run them?????

ally_uk

Yeah I also use Rock XP

to find out the XP CD key then you can use another XP Disc and use the key generated by Rock XP to carry out the install

I would say that AIDA32 is another great tool for finding out unknown drivers

emmajoyce

Just a note, havent tried rockxp. Ill have to look at that. I use something called Belarc advisor(free). It will give you all the installed keycodes and serial numbers for software on the computer. It also does a security check and will tell you what patches and hotfixes you need for the puter. good luck

jescab

The magic jelly bean is a slick little program to grab the OS and Windows Office suite codes.