Best buy is a joke.
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Computer Repair Person needed. HELP
- Thread starter Knife Lady
- Start date
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Best buy is a joke.
Does it have a DVD/CD drive? Maybe get into the BIOS and change the boot order and try and boot from media if you have it, and then see if you can do a repair on the OS. Might be that the boot sector, etc is jacked up.
Just a thought. Is there data on the laptop that you are after, or just trying to get online?
First, I have posted the following basic info in a PM conversation with KnifeLady and hope to help recover her data. I just wanted to throw this out for the good of all...
Windows 8.1 is more than capable compared to 7. In fact it has a few more features. Not enough to ditch a perfectly working 7, but its good and stable under the hood. It requires more horsepower to run, so on a new PC its a wash, but older PCs wont run 8 as well.
The biggest beef is the Metro Interface. It sucks. BIG TIME. The tiles are nice for a phone, but ridiculous for anything with any reasonable screen real estate. Microsoft's wish to make their OS the exact same across EVERY last device is a joke. As you know a leatherman is great in a pinch, but is nowhere near as good or efficient as each and every unitasker that it tries to replace. Same concept. We NEED a different interface for a handheld screen than we do a full size tablet or PC. This edict was the equivalent of saying "on the road you need all the tools to fit in a small space of a pocket. Since the road guys (phones) can make due with auto repair using a leatherman, EVERYONE, including the shop guys working under the lifts (desktops and laptops), need to switch to leathermans and ditch their rolling Snap-On toolboxes. " Yeah, pretty ridiculous.
If you Like and want a windows 7 interface on 8, all is not lost. There is a donationware (free, but they ask you donate if you like it. no nag screens, etc.) program called classic shell. It lets you run windows 8 much like windows 7 or XP. It boots to the desktop instead of Metro, the start menu is formatted LIKE (not exactly) windows 7, etc. Its not exact, but its close enough to be pretty painless. You can always drop to the tiles interface if you want with a keystroke.
Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
The good news is the previews of windows 10 which comes out next year looks like 7 and 8 had a baby... Its got the start menu like 7, but you can add the live tiles into the start menu.
Second, Churchmouse is correct. They tend to be as shady as used car salesmen. CSB:
A gaming buddy in Janesville WI called me one night. He rebooted and his PC showed a SMART error that his drive was going into predictive failure and to back up his data ASAP. I said no biggie. Go to best buy and buy a new drive and a program called Acronis True Image. The latter was only $30 and it would let him clone the old drive to the new. No special skills required.
He went there and couldnt find the software on the shelf. He asked Geek Squad about it and they said "there is no such software. Only specialized 4 figure software can do that. We would have to transfer your data to the new drive for about $300" He left empty handed because he was out of work and although he could afford a new drive and the Acronis tool, he couldnt afford another $300. Two days later his hard drive crashed taking everything with it. When I found out I checked stock and they had about 25 copies of the software on the shelf. The GS guy lied to him to generate revenue for his department.
Second story: Local buddy of mine was just getting into computers professionally. Smart guy, knows his stuff but was still green. A PERFECT entry level bench tech. As a bench tech you work with others so if there is something you dont know you can be mentored by your fellow techs. He was told that he had too much experience and was overqualified.
Chew on those before you go there.
Windows 8.1 is more than capable compared to 7. In fact it has a few more features. Not enough to ditch a perfectly working 7, but its good and stable under the hood. It requires more horsepower to run, so on a new PC its a wash, but older PCs wont run 8 as well.
The biggest beef is the Metro Interface. It sucks. BIG TIME. The tiles are nice for a phone, but ridiculous for anything with any reasonable screen real estate. Microsoft's wish to make their OS the exact same across EVERY last device is a joke. As you know a leatherman is great in a pinch, but is nowhere near as good or efficient as each and every unitasker that it tries to replace. Same concept. We NEED a different interface for a handheld screen than we do a full size tablet or PC. This edict was the equivalent of saying "on the road you need all the tools to fit in a small space of a pocket. Since the road guys (phones) can make due with auto repair using a leatherman, EVERYONE, including the shop guys working under the lifts (desktops and laptops), need to switch to leathermans and ditch their rolling Snap-On toolboxes. " Yeah, pretty ridiculous.
If you Like and want a windows 7 interface on 8, all is not lost. There is a donationware (free, but they ask you donate if you like it. no nag screens, etc.) program called classic shell. It lets you run windows 8 much like windows 7 or XP. It boots to the desktop instead of Metro, the start menu is formatted LIKE (not exactly) windows 7, etc. Its not exact, but its close enough to be pretty painless. You can always drop to the tiles interface if you want with a keystroke.
Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
The good news is the previews of windows 10 which comes out next year looks like 7 and 8 had a baby... Its got the start menu like 7, but you can add the live tiles into the start menu.
Second, Churchmouse is correct. They tend to be as shady as used car salesmen. CSB:
A gaming buddy in Janesville WI called me one night. He rebooted and his PC showed a SMART error that his drive was going into predictive failure and to back up his data ASAP. I said no biggie. Go to best buy and buy a new drive and a program called Acronis True Image. The latter was only $30 and it would let him clone the old drive to the new. No special skills required.
He went there and couldnt find the software on the shelf. He asked Geek Squad about it and they said "there is no such software. Only specialized 4 figure software can do that. We would have to transfer your data to the new drive for about $300" He left empty handed because he was out of work and although he could afford a new drive and the Acronis tool, he couldnt afford another $300. Two days later his hard drive crashed taking everything with it. When I found out I checked stock and they had about 25 copies of the software on the shelf. The GS guy lied to him to generate revenue for his department.
Second story: Local buddy of mine was just getting into computers professionally. Smart guy, knows his stuff but was still green. A PERFECT entry level bench tech. As a bench tech you work with others so if there is something you dont know you can be mentored by your fellow techs. He was told that he had too much experience and was overqualified.
Chew on those before you go there.
If it needs a new hdd, I'm game for swapping it out. I'm dead smack in the center of town. I have a 80gb hdd around here doing nothing. If the old drive will power up and read I have a drive reader that is USB. If my 80 gb is too small you can buy a new drive at frys too, and upgrade in the process.
I'm a people person! I deal with people! What the hell is wrong with you people?
I don't believe most Geek Squad dudes are shady, just too stupid to be working on computers. Apparently BB's main requirement for a Geek Squad job is that you can breathe.
Usually, you don't need to buy any software for data transfer to the new HD. If you purchase the retail version of a new HD, that type of software is included.
Sounds like the ops HD is toast. Or if this is the daughters computer that performed the beating that caused the HD failure, time to let her do without.
Usually, you don't need to buy any software for data transfer to the new HD. If you purchase the retail version of a new HD, that type of software is included.
Sounds like the ops HD is toast. Or if this is the daughters computer that performed the beating that caused the HD failure, time to let her do without.
You can set Windows 8.1 to boot to desktop without any additional software. Other than a few different things such as get used to using charms and right clicking the "Windows button/start button" rather than left clicking start, and you never really need to see the modern/metro UI.
Take a Windows 8.1 machine set it to boot to desktop and most Win 7 people figure it our pretty quick.
