My Computer is Fried!

Aka...........What do I do now?

Eventually that dreaded day is going to come, like it or not, when you are going to have something happen to your computer. You will log on and get nothing but the “blue screen of death and doom and gloom” or it won’t turn on at all.

Your first reaction of course is what happened? Well, it could have been a power surge that made it past your power strip. You do have one installed on your unit right? If not that is your very first line of defense.

There could have been a severe thunderstorm with lots of lightening and you didn’t totally unplug your computer from the electrical socket before the storm struck and whammo! You got fried!

The next thought, at least in my case is “all my important contacts and information is on my computer.”  I do lots of genealogy work and my mind is instantly reeling because I know I’ve not backed up the files in forever.  Lesson learned, back up all your files every single month. Put EVERYTHING onto a DVD /CD disc. At least your information can be easily installed onto a new computer and all your hard work hasn’t been in vain.

The other thing is, even though the motherboard is dead in the water, chances are if you have a good technician, he will be able to retrieve all your information off of your hard drive. Enter Mitch from PC Headquarters, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I contacted him and he could hear my fears and frustrations of what had happened. After calming me down, the instructions were to send him the hard drive and he would try and get everything he could off of it for me. 

Within just a couple hours of receiving my hard drive, Mitch gave me a call and said that we were in luck he was going to be able to retrieve everything for me and would be putting it onto a disc for me. Now when I say everything, I mean everything. He was able to not only get every file for me, but every bookmark as well.

Within 5 days I had my package back, along with the old hard drive reformatted and installed in the external drive unit that I’d purchased and sent to him.

Now I have the external hard drive where I can put all of my genealogy work separate and if I need to run to the storm shelter because of tornadoes, I can grab that unit and take it down into the shelter with me, knowing that information will be safe and secure. Now I also have a family site where I have information posted as well, but 9 times out of 10, it isn’t as up to date as the records on my computer.

So no matter where you live, if you need a good technician that really “knows his stuff” and is reasonably priced, give Mitch a call. Tell him Kay sent you!

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/PC-Headquarters-Mitch/300481989970880

Thanks Mitch for saving the day and my sanity!