**UPDATED**told myself I'd never do it but got greedy and caved...I now fix computers for money.

[sygyzy]

How'd you find such a cool job? That would be an easy way to make some quick cash.

 

from years of doing just that you kinda build up your own selection of tools... i always have nav2k2, corp wxp pro and home with legit serials, a plethora of boot disks and the knowledge that if worse comes to worse you can

Installing that software you have a license for is made non-legit when you install it on a computer that isn't yours, or covered by your licensing.

 

[EyeMWing]

Talk to your employer about software - DO NOT use your own. EVER. Too many legal ramifications. That said, free utilities. Keep a bunch of those around. Especially AdAware AND Spybot S&D. A disgusting number of people, especially those with WinXP do not have WinZip.

And take an ethernet card. Somthing fairly universal. I use an Realtek RTL-8139 for PCI systems and RTL-8019 for ISA systems. Of course, this also means that your laptop needs to have an eth card.

Oh, and welcome to the dark side.

 

[adlep]

Asa broke college student who had this same idea more than one and a half year ago, I can tell you that it was my best idea ever..
But, always go legit, it is your customer's responsibility to pay for whatever software they want you to install.
Good luck...

 

[Apathetic]

Ad-Aware 6.0 is pretty good, and it's free too.

You may also want to bring a copy of Windows 2000 SP 4 and whatever the current SP is for XP on a CD (beats the hell out of downloading it if they don't have a high speed connection). Also bring along the latest stable video drivers for nVidia and a handfull of ones for ATI.

Also, either bring a hub or a network crossover cable in case you need to move data from their machine to yours (e.g. you have a CD burner and they don't and you need to backup some stuff to CD before you wipe a drive).

Dave

 

[EyeMWing]

Oh yeah, and bring WinNT4 (Yes, it still exists) service pack 8374892364728 or whatever, 2k service pack 4 and XP service pack 1 (And for XP, also bring the most important patches - in particular the one for blaster. I can email you a copy of that patch if neccessary)

Also, familiarize yourself with the manual removal for recent worms, in particular blaster and the spybot varients.

And if at all possible, be prepared to patch yourself into their internet connection and consult ATOT.

 

[Kelvrick]

DIdn't bother reading most of the thread, so some might be a repeat. Antivirus software, but don't forget to have the latest codecs in case they can't go to the internet and update or are just too damn slow.

Partition Magic and such programs are usefull too, as well as those little startup disks that let you view NTFS partitions in Dos.

Whenever I did this (summer job) I always brought along my laptop which had everything loaded on the hard drive and the ability to connect to another computer through a network, direct usb connection, or parallel. It also had an external usb enclosure in case I needed to work on their hard drive from my laptop for some reason.

It is a lot faster to run diagnostic software from anotehr hd then to run it on a computer that is already fvcked up. I also had a spare video card, sound card, usb-ethernet plug, network card, floppy, cd-rw/dvd combo drive, hd, power supply, and ide/sczi cables in the trunk of my car.

 

[Rakkis]

i'm surprised at how not many people know about runtime software's getdataback
it saves lives people!~

 

[minus1972]

ton of good posts today...thanks.

I'm downloading a few things now...gonna try and have a list setup sometime this week.

Thanks again for the help, more is always welcome.

 

[MrYogi]

bootdisk

 

[Winchester]

Nice "free" software lists! I keep almost all of these on a CD or two.

Warez Free

 

[mcveigh]

I almost forgot knoppix. great tool when widows is fuxored and you need to get data off or verify it's not a hardware problem.

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php

 

[minus1972]

alright...I start tomorrow...we'll see how everything goes.

right now I have:

ad-aware
sandra (in case I need to format, so I can get drivers and whatnot before I do or while I'm doing it)
spybot
macafee stinger

on my laptop. I'm also going to bring a windows boot disk (with fixed fdisk), a spare NIC, and my external USB hard drive. I've been told that I'll have copies of windows and norton, and possibly a jump drive. The only thing I can't get right now is the keyfinder listed in the post above (the website is down)...anyone have any replacement programs for that?

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread...I'll update when I get home tomorrow.

 

[PanzerIV]

Originally posted by: minus1972
The only thing I can't get right now is the keyfinder listed in the post above (the website is down)...anyone have any replacement programs for that?

Sure do. Go here. I use it all of the time.

 

[minus1972]

Originally posted by: PanzerIV

Originally posted by: minus1972
The only thing I can't get right now is the keyfinder listed in the post above (the website is down)...anyone have any replacement programs for that?

Sure do. Go here. I use it all of the time.

sweet...my boss gave me that today actually on my own company jumpdrive.

First day went well...set up two access points and updated four laptops that hadn't run windows update since purchase...then ran adaware and spybot through a desktop to make it run a little smoother. Probably won't be much work there for me until after christmas...but it seems like fun so far.

 

[midwestfisherman]

Congrats....keep us posted on your progress.

 

[Ogg]

condoms for possible hot milf action:Q😱

It could happen

 

[minus1972]

second full day of work today...this job is mint.

First client had called complaining that her machine didn't start up and her mouse didn't work. Arrived to find that the machine did in fact boot and the mouse was fine...it just needed new batteries. Spent some time removing adware and spyware and updating what needed to be updated, then cleaned out the startup folder and system tray so the machine would run a little smoother. Started up a defrag and headed out.

Second client called saying that Norton had found a "threat" and apparently when she saw that she panicked and just shut the machine off and called my company. Went over and removed the virus and adware that it had found and finished up some things left over from Thursday.

All in all a sweet day...I got to spend some time reading up on real problems for when I actually have to work on something challenging...but for now I'm not complaining.