Useful software for starting a repair business

[Josh154]

Hey guys, so i've been looking at getting a little PC repair business going as im kinda smart with this stuff and it's some cash i could make on the side. You may have read my thread on the windows discs, but i want to keep that thread on topic.

Anyways, i need to know whats some good software and tool's for diagnosing and repairing peoples computers? As well as the basic tuneup for speed. Here's my current list of tool's that are at the top forsure.

Virus scanners and removals,
-Malwarebyte's anti malware
-ComboFix
-TDSS Killer
-Microsoft Security Essentials

Basic Tuneup's for registry and defrag
-CCleaner
-Defraggler

Hardware test's,
-Memtest 86+ Bootable version
-DFT

I'd then install MSE or Avast free if they want for future.

Also, should i put these programs on a disc, or should i put them on a flash drive so i can install them quick and run them? How do i go about having them on there and installing onto the C:// or can i just run them from the flash drive?

 

[Melvis]

I use Avast alot since its free and easy and does a good check when you reboot the machine.

Ive been running my own business for over a yr now and most of the time its best to just format the machine other then stuffing around with programs to fix issues. And less time wasted.

Memtest i use also.

I put all mine on a flash drive with me when i go to peoples places. To answer your question just download the install of each program and have the exe ready on ya flash drive to install on there PC

I also carry around a different browser with me like google crome or firefox as in most people just use IE which stuffs up alot.

 

[exodusprime1337]

you're gonna need a lot more than that, ultimate boot cd has some.. where i work we also pay a good deal of money for go to assist so we can remote repair pc's as well

be aware of combofix, it disables autoplay from cd/dvd drives.. not all your customers whom don't know how to manually cue up a disk will appreciate that

Ultimate boot cd or a custom grub4dos utility with lots of custom apps is nice. I keep my laptop dual booting linux/windows so i can tackle mac and linux issues as well. We do more server/IT repair and recovery but we service the client and personal side upon request

Don't get hung up in "what do i need now" the best way imho to get the right stuff is to take on a job and get what you need to do it, and save those things for later, that way you figure out what works best and what doesn't work at all.

 

[Josh154]

I use Avast alot since its free and easy and does a good check when you reboot the machine.

Ive been running my own business for over a yr now and most of the time its best to just format the machine other then stuffing around with programs to fix issues. And less time wasted.

Memtest i use also.

I put all mine on a flash drive with me when i go to peoples places. To answer your question just download the install of each program and have the exe ready on ya flash drive to install on there PC

I also carry around a different browser with me like google crome or firefox as in most people just use IE which stuffs up alot.

So get the exe on the flash drive then install to there computer? That works

Yeah, thats another reason why im trying to get all my windows discs, so i can easily reformat. Im gonna need a external HDD though to back up there data though.

you're gonna need a lot more than that, ultimate boot cd has some.. where i work we also pay a good deal of money for go to assist so we can remote repair pc's as well

be aware of combofix, it disables autoplay from cd/dvd drives.. not all your customers whom don't know how to manually cue up a disk will appreciate that

Ultimate boot cd or a custom grub4dos utility with lots of custom apps is nice. I keep my laptop dual booting linux/windows so i can tackle mac and linux issues as well. We do more server/IT repair and recovery but we service the client and personal side upon request

Don't get hung up in "what do i need now" the best way imho to get the right stuff is to take on a job and get what you need to do it, and save those things for later, that way you figure out what works best and what doesn't work at all.

What's this ultimate boot cd? Yeah, combofix isn't something i'd use a lot. It's good at getting rid of stuff but also messing stuff up haha.

I've already got clients in right now. Replacing a LCD on a laptop tomorrow, and then i have a laptop with a dead HDD but i need to get a windows vista x64 disc for that.

My biggest concern is it's gonna be something i can't fix as i don't have the software, etc.

 

[exodusprime1337]

go here for your ubcd, it's a godsend especially with hard disks, you can also add stuff to it, in the tools folder is a file call ubcd2iso, basically at the dos utilites you want(bios flashing utilities and others) and then use this to burn to cd, also there is a ubcd2usb that will make a bootable flash drive(also a godsend) for newer machines, pm me if you have troubles, i'm always willing to help out.

edit: also keep in mind, when it comes to software, most of what your looking for is freeware anyways, so if you run into a problem that needs more than what you have, just go get it. This is typical of rootkit and virus removal, sometimes you need the special program from trend micro or symantic to remove the thing, in these situations you can go get it.

edit: for anybody using wd black drives, you can use wdtler and add it to ubcd to turn on tler which is the only difference between black edition and raid edition wd drives.

 

[Melvis]

So get the exe on the flash drive then install to there computer? That works

Yeah, thats another reason why im trying to get all my windows discs, so i can easily reformat. Im gonna need a external HDD though to back up there data though.

Yep that's what i do

Yea good idea, i have lots of ISO's and disc of most OS's to fix there machines with. And yea i also have a 1TB external drive to back up all there files to, mainly photos.

 

[Josh154]

Yep that's what i do

Yea good idea, i have lots of ISO's and disc of most OS's to fix there machines with. And yea i also have a 1TB external drive to back up all there files to, mainly photos.

Cool, ill look at buying a external hdd next for backing up everything

Anything else i should use and need?

 

[streetfighter 2]

Hiren's bootCD. Mine has a lot of pay software on it too that's really useful. Beats the snot out of my old ERD commander disc and my highly customized BartPE disc.

I actually have Hiren's bootable on my jumpdrive right now but I still keep a disc as a backup.

In terms of tools you'll need a lot of them, but none are as important as knowing how to quickly diagnose a problem .

 

[Melvis]

Cool, ill look at buying a external hdd next for backing up everything

Anything else i should use and need?

Docking station is handy, and also laptop enclosures for laptop drives.

Heat sink paste, air compressor or similar.

Screw drivers and tools

Ummm

 

[Josh154]

Hiren's bootCD. Mine has a lot of pay software on it too that's really useful. Beats the snot out of my old ERD commander disc and my highly customized BartPE disc.

I actually have Hiren's bootable on my jumpdrive right now but I still keep a disc as a backup.

In terms of tools you'll need a lot of them, but none are as important as knowing how to quickly diagnose a problem .

Where can i get Hiren's bootCD and if it's a bootable CD how do i clean out viruses and what not?

Docking station is handy, and also laptop enclosures for laptop drives.

Heat sink paste, air compressor or similar.

Screw drivers and tools

Ummm

Yeah, i just added a quick cart together on newegg, i've got a 1 tb wd external on there for $70 bucks, 4 4gb flash drives for win vistas and win 7's for 23 bucks, and a rosewill 45 piece magnetic tool kit for $20 bucks.

Why would i need a laptop enclosure? When working on trying to get data off laptop drives that have failed?

 

[Melvis]

Where can i get Hiren's bootCD and if it's a bootable CD how do i clean out viruses and what not?



Yeah, i just added a quick cart together on newegg, i've got a 1 tb wd external on there for $70 bucks, 4 4gb flash drives for win vistas and win 7's for 23 bucks, and a rosewill 45 piece magnetic tool kit for $20 bucks.

Why would i need a laptop enclosure? When working on trying to get data off laptop drives that have failed?

Well when they have failed thats pretty much game over lol. But i mean if you cant get into the OS, you can always take out the drive and hook it up with an enclosure to another PC via USB to get the files off the drive.

 

[Josh154]

Well when they have failed thats pretty much game over lol. But i mean if you cant get into the OS, you can always take out the drive and hook it up with an enclosure to another PC via USB to get the files off the drive.

Yeah, thats been the biggest thing i've been looking into now is data recovery. Is there any docking stations for both sata and IDE?

 

[streetfighter 2]

Where can i get Hiren's bootCD and if it's a bootable CD how do i clean out viruses and what not?

When it comes to viruses unless it's really simple and can be defeated with a quick virus scan, using MBAM (or other free tools), you should charge out the ass for cleaning out viruses. Really badly infected computers could take hours to fix whereas a format with a properly loaded disc is only a few minutes work.

I'd recommend something like this for aiding in data recovery:
VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter
The only thing missing from that is a power adapter for 2.5" IDE drives (which you probably won't need very often).

I'd also recommend a short (1/2 meter or less) SATA-to-eSATA cable if your computer has an eSATA port. That way you can hook up a drive at full speed to your computer if need be. USB-to-SATA/IDE combined with a linux live disc is often the gentlest way to recover data from an HDD that's only a few rotations away from kicking the bucket (in my experience).

 

[Josh154]

When it comes to viruses unless it's really simple and can be defeated with a quick virus scan, using MBAM (or other free tools), you should charge out the ass for cleaning out viruses. Really badly infected computers could take hours to fix whereas a format with a properly loaded disc is only a few minutes work.

I'd recommend something like this for aiding in data recovery:
VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter
The only thing missing from that is a power adapter for 2.5" IDE drives (which you probably won't encounter too often).

I'd also recommend a short (1/2 meter or less) SATA-to-eSATA cable if your computer has an eSATA port. That way you can hook up a drive at full speed to your computer if need be. USB-to-SATA/IDE combined with a linux live disc is often the gentlest way to recover data from an HDD that's only a few rotations away from kicking the bucket (in my experience).

Does that sata to usb 2.0 adapter work with laptop drives? Aren't laptop IDE drives different than your typical 3.5 ide cable?

 

[streetfighter 2]

Does that sata to usb 2.0 adapter work with laptop drives? Aren't laptop IDE drives different than your typical 3.5 ide cable?

As I said in my other post it does work with 2.5" IDE drives (laptop IDE drives) but since it doesn't have an external power adapter for 2.5" IDE, the drive will not be able to exceed about 500mA (@5V) unless you have a USB port that can put out more current than the USB specification requires. In my experience quite a few 2.5" IDE drives are 550mA and won't be able to spin-up using only the current supplied by a single USB port.

I soldered on a 4-pin molex to my USB adapter so I could externally power laptop IDE drives.

Also that was the first model I picked out from a quick google search. There are tons of other USB-to-SATA/IDE adapters that may already have an external supply for 2.5" IDE drives, but you'll have to find them for yourself.

The only thing missing from that is a power adapter for 2.5" IDE drives (which you probably won't need very often).

 

[FordGT90Concept]

What I use...often:
-Rexus PSU Tester (will blatantly tell you if a PSU has problems)
-Nec USB Floppy Drive
-Lite-On USB DVD+/-RW
-Digital Inovations DataDoctor
-4 GiB or less USB Flash Memory stick (FAT32 formatted--reduces likelihood of problems)
-MS-DOS Startup Disk w/ Oak CD-ROM driver and several others modded in.
-Windows 98 SE Startup Disk
-A good screwdriver:
--No magnets
--Plastic handle (resist current)
--A good choice of bits in the handle (Phillips, Flat, and Hex of varying sizes).
-A stash of thermal paste.
-A stash of thermal paste remover.
-An electricians toolkit (needle nose pliers, wire cutter, electrical tape, etc.)
-A stash of cheap sleeve bearing fans to replace those that fail.
-A spare PSU to test bad PSUs and sell (used, of course) if the opportunity arises.
-A KVM and a hell of a lot of cables (audio, video, mouse, keyboard, network, and power are what I have) to quickly test and control numerous systems.
-Quicken or some other accounting application to print receipts and keep track of all finances.
-A cheap monochrome laser printer to print stuff (Brother is good).
-Ultimate Boot CD
-Major windows service packs (e.g. XP SP1a and XP SP3).
-Process Monitor by SysInternals.
-Memtestx86+
-FurMark for GPU stress testing
-OCCT for memory/CPU stress testing
-Canned Air or a portable air-compressor
-An ESATA 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD dock.

Those are the main things that get a lot of use...


Edit: Forgot Active Killdisk for low level harddrive erasing.


I really don't recommend anti-viruses (performance drain and you're still vulnerable). To all my customers, I stressed backing up data and reinstalling Windows. It costs a lot more but customer satisfaction is a lot higher (typical huge performance boost on systems that haven't been formatted in over 6 months). I make sure they're sitting with me when we back up all the files though and stress over and over and over that everything not backed up will be permanently lost. That has not yet failed to fix a system, no matter the ailment (except on like a 1993 computer where critical drivers were no longer available ).

 

[Josh154]

What I use...often:
-Rexus PSU Tester (will blatantly tell you if a PSU has problems)
-Nec USB Floppy Drive
-Lite-On USB DVD+/-RW
-Digital Inovations DataDoctor
-4 GiB or less USB Flash Memory stick (FAT32 formatted--reduces likelihood of problems)
-MS-DOS Startup Disk w/ Oak CD-ROM driver and several others modded in.
-Windows 98 SE Startup Disk
-A good screwdriver:
--No magnets
--Plastic handle (resist current)
--A good choice of bits in the handle (Phillips, Flat, and Hex of varying sizes).
-A stash of thermal paste.
-A stash of thermal paste remover.
-An electricians toolkit (needle nose pliers, wire cutter, electrical tape, etc.)
-A stash of cheap sleeve bearing fans to replace those that fail.
-A spare PSU to test bad PSUs and sell (used, of course) if the opportunity arises.
-A KVM and a hell of a lot of cables (audio, video, mouse, keyboard, network, and power are what I have) to quickly test and control numerous systems.
-Quicken or some other accounting application to print receipts and keep track of all finances.
-A cheap monochrome laser printer to print stuff (Brother is good).
-Ultimate Boot CD
-Major windows service packs (e.g. XP SP1a and XP SP3).
-Process Monitor by SysInternals.
-Memtestx86+
-FurMark for GPU stress testing
-OCCT for memory/CPU stress testing
-Canned Air or a portable air-compressor
-An ESATA 2.5" and 3.5" SATA HDD dock.

Those are the main things that get a lot of use...


I really don't recommend anti-viruses (performance drain and you're still vulnerable). To all my customers, I stressed backing up data and reinstalling Windows. It costs a lot more but customer satisfaction is a lot higher (typical huge performance boost on systems that haven't been formatted in over 6 months). I make sure they're sitting with me when we back up all the files though and stress over and over and over that everything not backed up will be permanently lost. That has not yet failed to fix a system, no matter the ailment (except on like a 1993 computer where critical drivers were no longer available ).

Thanks man! That was very helpful I'll look more into reformatting more with my clients computers. I just reformatted my old system last night and i can actually tell a huge performance boost already.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Yeah those HDD to USB adapters are a freaking god send.

 

[kenkickr]

A fabulous tuneup tool I use is Hijackthis. Great for getting rid of annoying startup crap and sometimes rogue spyware so you can actually do a virus/spyware cleanup.

 

[CJCerny]

Hey guys, so i've been looking at getting a little PC repair business going as im kinda smart with this stuff and it's some cash i could make on the side. You may have read my thread on the windows discs, but i want to keep that thread on topic.

Anyways, i need to know whats some good software and tool's for diagnosing and repairing peoples computers? As well as the basic tuneup for speed. Here's my current list of tool's that are at the top forsure.

Virus scanners and removals,
-Malwarebyte's anti malware
-ComboFix
-TDSS Killer
-Microsoft Security Essentials

Basic Tuneup's for registry and defrag
-CCleaner
-Defraggler

Hardware test's,
-Memtest 86+ Bootable version
-DFT

I'd then install MSE or Avast free if they want for future.

Also, should i put these programs on a disc, or should i put them on a flash drive so i can install them quick and run them? How do i go about having them on there and installing onto the C:// or can i just run them from the flash drive?

Careful. Most of the software you have listed before is free for private/individual use. If you use it for business/profit, you are typically in violation of the license agreement, and you open yourself up to all kinds of litigation if you get caught doing it or, more likely, when you piss off a customer and they report you.

 

[Frick]

Bluescreenview is one of the most convinient programs concieved imo. Lets you see the Bsod's with some additional information.

 

[Josh154]

Careful. Most of the software you have listed before is free for private/individual use. If you use it for business/profit, you are typically in violation of the license agreement, and you open yourself up to all kinds of litigation if you get caught doing it or, more likely, when you piss off a customer and they report you.

So then do i need to buy a license for these products so there legal for business use?

 

[CJCerny]

So then do i need to buy a license for these products so there legal for business use?

You will have to check with each and every developer whose products you use, unfortunately.

 

[brandonwh64]

This is why i keep alot of my DVD/CD drives that i get from used machines so i can use them to install stuff with. I also have a USB IDE/SATA/Floppy IDE converter so i can hook up a disc drive or a random hard drive to use as i need.

This device has worked wonders with fixing and building PCs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102

Also

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.13.0.zip

 

[Josh154]

Also

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.13.0.zip

Thanks brandon, yeah i don't have any OEM discs or anything from the laptops that i've had but i'll be sure to pick up any that i can for future reference. Im going to pick up 3 laptops from a lady here now so i may need some help with them, i'll keep you guys updated