Today’s computers are becoming more and more advanced. The average personal computer is more powerful than the computers used to land men on the moon. The processing power of a single computer is something that is hard to even try to comprehend. The power of computers has allowed us to utilize their power in more and more facets of life. Computers and their impact are affecting every aspect of modern life. Computers and the ease with which files and information can be shared have revolutionized the business world. Real time information can dramatically change the strategy of companies of all sizes. Perhaps the greatest part of computers is the ease of availability of them for nearly the entire world. This puts the smallest companies on a much more equal playing field with the largest multinational firms. This proliferation of technology has made it all the more important to diagnose problems as well. Hardware diagnostics is one of the most crucial parts of keeping a system up and running.
Hardware diagnostics can be an important tool to all computer users, from the family who just emails and surfs the web to companies with huge networks and systems. To the individual and family, hardware failure can spell disaster in many ways. Perhaps the biggest threat to the individual user is the loss of priceless documents, music, pictures, and video. While not catastrophic in a monetary sense, many of these types of files are irreplaceable. To larger businesses and companies, down time due to hardware problems can cost millions of dollars. The value of a solid information technology infrastructure is almost beyond price. There is nothing more frustrating than a computer or system not working the way it is intended to. The damage that could be done to a company by lost data due to hardware problems is catastrophic. Literally the viability of companies is often dependent on their computer hardware and systems.
When data is lost or corrupted, it makes people wonder if there was something they could have done to prevent it. Often there is something that could have been done and it involves hardware diagnostics. This is a set of processes to determine if and what is wrong with the hardware of your computer. The hardware is all the physical aspects of the computer: central processing unit, monitor, and peripherals. The biggest problems are those that involve the processing unit of the computer and its internal drives. Hardware diagnostics is the way to ensure that your system continues to work smoothly. Running preventive and cautionary diagnostics is often a good idea to preserve the integrity of your systems.
The Computer Repair Training Plus website has additional information that you might find useful.
Finding a job in the the Information Technology field will require computer repair training and A+ certification. You can find computer repair classes at local public community colleges and Regional Occupation Centers taught by experienced and certified computer technicians. This training can be some of the best and least expensive you will find. Private colleges also offer good training that but the cost is considerably higher. Most all employers now require CompTIA A+ certification for entry level positions. Employers have learned the hard way that A+ certification provides them the confidence that new employees will be able to hit the ground running and be able to troubleshoot and repair computers. If you have some troubleshooting and repair experience you can do self study and test prep online using some great test prep material. There are also some good texts available through Amazon and other book outlets. Some of the best texts are written by Jean Andrews and ExamCram for test prep material. The test prep material will help your studies by telling you why the answer you choose is either right or wrong which can help to fill-in the learning gaps.
CompTIA is a non-profit organization that receives input from all the major industry computer companies and develops and administers certification tests for computer, network, and security positions. Cisco also has some valuable computer networking certifications with the first CCNA certification for networking equipment which includes the manageable switches and routers. Microsoft also has good certifications for administrating servers and other Microsoft software programs and services.
A good source for finding part-time and later full-time work is Craig’s List. Many of my students have quickly found part-time and short term work through Craig’s List which has given them lots of different types of work and experience to add to their resumes. This short term work has always led to full-time positions within 30-90 days. The A+ certification is now the entry ticket for these positions which can lead into some well paying ($100,000 plus) positions. The starting pay should be from $15-$30 dollars per hour and full-time should begin at $30,00-$50,000 depending on demonstrated skills and abilities.
The Computer Repair Training Plus website has some additional information that you might find useful.
It is quick and easy to recover files using computer file recovery utilities. You can find both commercial
Computer File Recovery
and free Open Source file recovery utilities. If the file was accidentally deleted you should protect the drive by not installing or copying files to the drive.
Undeleting Files
When a file is deleted, only the name is modified to allow new files to be copied over the deleted file. The deleted files are still on the hard drive and can be recovered using file recovery utilities. It would be best to run the computer from a different drive or CDROM. This way you prevent the accidental over writing and destroying the files. You should first install on a separate drive either a trial commercial version or free Open Source utility to see if the utility can find and recover the file. There are good free utilities that will restore most deleted files.
Using a Live CD
Live CD’s run an operating system from the CDROM and do not affect the hard drive. The CD allows you to scan the hard drive and recover files quickly and copy them to an external device. Live CD’s are usually Linux distributions, but there are some Windows PE versions that provide a small Windows XP environment.
Hard Drive Failure
If you have a hard drive failure or hardware component failure you will need the help of a recovery service center. They will charge several hundred dollars depending on the component that failed and the amount of data to be recovered.
The ComputerRepairTraining website has additional information that you might find useful.
