FAQs
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
It used to be that the CompTIA A+ Certification, once earned, would last for life. But the certification I received is good for only three years. Although I am not in school now, I plan to return soon, to ready myself for the next exams. I study better in a classroom environment---and the two tests I will take will be as difficult as any I have taken in my life. They won't be the same as before, but will include questions about the Android operating system and Apple's iOS. Meanwhile, I am studying several computer magazines to keep up with the news in my field.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
I went back to school with the idea of becoming a psychologist, but I noticed that whenever I wanted to take a break from my studies I would play with the computer. I don't mean that I played computer games; instead I challenged myself to get my Vista computer to go faster, and I tried all kinds of tricks to make that happen. When I realized one day that I did not want to listen to depressed or angry people talk to me all day long, every day, I looked for an alternative to psychology---and what was more natural than to turn to the kind of work that seemed like a game, that I did just to relax and enjoy myself.
- What types of customers have you worked with?
The most common problem is the computer that won't boot up, while the screen says something like "disk error". I first try inserting the installation disc for the operating system involved, and I boot up to the Recovery Console or Automatic Repair. I use the command prompt to start a checkdisk---but most of the time it won't start and I receive an error message saying that the drive is write protected. I must then remove the hard drive from the computer and attach it with a USB cable to my own desktop computer. I am able to see and access the drive as a secondary or slave, and I try again to run a checkdisk, usually with success. When I place the drive back in the customer's computer it almost always boots up. If not I use the Hard Drive Regenerator program on my Multiboot disc. If the drive is so bad that it will not respond to this program, I can at least copy my client's data and move it to a new hard drive, by once again attaching the damaged drive to my computer.