Data Recovery

It always happens at least a couple of times a year.  An old client knocked an external drive to the floor and now we have the dreaded ticking noise.  Drive is not all functional.  The drive is full of irreplaceable personal and some valuable business info as well. 

Here at Computer Guy Consulting we are authorized Drive Savers resellers.  This gives customers an option for data recovery that is discounted if sucessfull and free if the recovery attempt is unsucessfull ( a $200.00 value). 

Make back ups, have multiple copies of your files, use an online back up service.  If you need any type of data recovery, call us.

Tucson Computer Repair -Options?

What are your computer repair options here in Tucson?  Big Box Store, National Repair Companies, or a local shop?  Clients tell me that the Big Box stores charge about $100.00 just to look at a PC.  The National Repair Companies have you call an 800 number and talk to a dispatcher person who may not even be in the United States. 

Who needs the Big Box or the Nerd Wagon when you can go local?  Here at Computer Guy in sunny Tucson, Arizona we offer free diagnostics in our shop.  We answer the phone with people who actually work on PC’s!  A local technician, serving the local area, offering free diagnostics, fast service and turn around times. What a concept!

What’s Your Data Worth?

How much time and energy do you have invested in your: contacts, database, photos, spreadsheets, word documents, emails, etc?  For most of us a lot of effort is tied up in those files.  Could you afford to lose them?  Most would say no.  What’s your data worth to you?

Here in the Tucson area Computer Guy Consulting does data recovery frequently.  PC’s crash, hard disk die, hardware is stolen, malware destroys data.  Most customers have little to no back up of most data.  Don’t make an excuse about why you can not do it.  Copy files once a month to an external hard disk drive.  Let us set up an automatic back up system for you.  Both solutions are significantly cheaper than having to pay for data recovery. 

 

Computer Repair ? or New PC ?

Do you need computer repair?  We do that.  Do you have an old PC.  Windows 7 has just been released and it’s good.  Rather than spending money on an old PC it may make sense to buy a new computer.  Dell is offering some very good prices now on the machines with Windows 7.   If you need help trying to decide what to do- call us.  We give free diagnostics and we are Dell authorized resellers.  Do you need a computer repair?  Maybe, maybe not.  Give us an email or call.  We are here to help.  Do you have a small business in the Tucson area?  We can help with your small business IT needs as well.

Data Recovery in Tucson

Tucson Data Recovery

Computer Guy Consulting recovers data for countless individuals and businesses every year.  Generally data loss is caused by human factors.  Sometimes the actual drives do go bad.  Either way, we can recover your data. 

Recovery is usually possible after a “whoops” happens.  Your best bet is to turn off the pc in question and call us.  You don’t want to make your situation worse by overwriting your valuable data.  We can recover your database, photos, quickbooks, email, documents, etc. and put them on dvds or an external hard disk. 

Make sure you back up your data.  If you need data recovery in the Tucson area, we have extensive experience and hundreds of successful recoveries.  Call us at 520-325-4656.

Computer Repair in Tucson

Do you need computer repair in Tucson?  You’re at the right place.  Computer Guy Consulting does computer repair, data recovery, and small business IT support.  We can repair your laptop or desktop computer.  We offer data recovery if your computer is “crashed”.  Do you own a company in Tucson?  If so, mention this article and receive a free “network consultation”.  We will come in and evaluate your network and computers to make sure that all is well and working correctly.  If you need help our small business IT support is here to help with all your business technology needs.

Tip of the day:  make sure all of your networked computers have updated antivirus and antispyware software.  This will head off most malware programs before they become problems.

Windows PC needing a Boost?

Computer Repair, yeah we do that. 

• Sometimes a simple RAM upgrade is all it takes.  We only use Micron memory from Crucial.  Why-always compatible and guaranteed for life!  How much is enough?  That depends on you and your pc use.  We can make sure you have enough based on your needs and computer.
• Is it slooooowww?  We can speed it up for you.  Optimization of your software environment is a common solution for a slow pc.  Do you really need 50 start up programs?  Probably not.
• Bad hardware slowing you down? Sometimes a drive will slowly fail.  Memory sticks will also slowly fail and cause errors.  We have the know how and diagnostic tools to figure it out for you. 
• Virus, spyware, trojan horse, root kit?  Oh yeah, a brand new pc will go slow with an infection.  Again we have the know how, experience, and tools to figure it out and fix it.

Computer repair, data recovery, small business IT, yeah we have been doing this for 10 years now in the Tucson, Arizona area.  If you need fast, affordable, and reliable computer repair we got you covered!

Email Services -Which should I use?

 

This blog post is in response to helping a customer of mine decide what type of email she wanted.

Email is an essential business tool.  Which service is right for you?  Free or paid?  Muffy@gmail.com or j.doe@mybusiness.com? Web mail or domain email?  Which mail client should I use?  Do I really need an email client?  Help I am so confused!

Email comes in many forms both paid and free. 

Option 1: Use the email address(es) your ISP (Internet Service Provider) gives you.  JohnDoe@cox.net

Option 2: Use a free email address from google.com or yahoo.com.  johndoe@gmail.com johndoe@yahoo.com

Option 3: Use a paid email service with your own domain name. john@johndoe.com

Option 4: Your cellular service gives you an email address.  johndoe@att.net

Mail client software or webmail?

Mail client software is a program for checking email.  Outlook express (included in windows xp), Outlook (part of Microsoft Office), Windows Mail (included in Windows Vista and Windows 7),  Mail in OS X, many other minor players as well.

Webmail is simply logging in to a website to check your mail.  No client software needed.  Gmail.com is the most popular.

Which is best for you?  It depends.  Webmail is generally free, can be checked from any internet connected pc, you don’t have to back up because it is stored on a remote mail server somewhere.  Quick and Simple.  Generally, most people who are heavy email users prefer to use a mail client because it is more configurable and feature rich.  In the case of Outlook is tightly integrated to the office suite.  Mail is stored locally and is available even with no internet connection available.  Is that email important?  If so you need to be backing it up. 

Free or Paid? Again it depends on your needs.  Running a business and want to use your own domain name, that cost a little money.  You get what you pay for.  Some of the hosted email services provide really nice spam filtering, large inboxes, and the ability to send large attachments.  Paying for a service entitles you to some amount of customer service and a better quality service.  Lots of people are perfectly happy to use a free webmail service such as yahoo or gmail addresses with no problems.  Just remember you shouldn’t have any expectation of customer service or server uptime with the free accounts.

Email is a complicated topic depending on your individual or business needs.  At Computer Guy Consulting we have a lot of experience setting up various types of email for a variety of clients.  If you need small business IT support to figure this whole email thing out please feel free to contact us.  We’ll be happy to consult with you about the best email solution for your business.

Protect Your Business Computers

I am going to paraphrase a really good article from the Kentucky Commonwealth Office of Technology’s monthly newsletter. 

Getting pop ups telling you your pc is infected!  If you click here and pay $29.99 or $39.99 and we will clean your system.  Watch out this is some fake antivirus or antimalware scam.

How do you get this infection?  You clicked on a bogus link in a webpage or maybe you clicked on a pop-up.  It all looks real and legitimate.  This link or pop-up convinces you to click and the bogus software will disinfect and/or protect your system. Some website can infect you just by visiting the site.  Hacker and Porn sites are famous for this.

Bad news is your antivirus and antimalware usually don’t offer much protection because they are reactive.  This means the newest malware isn’t detectable because the security vendor hasn’t had time to place a signature put in to the malware definitions.

What’s going to happen?
Hard to say.  Maybe you won’t notice any issue for days or weeks.  All of sudden the computer is slow as sin and your internet connection is “talking” like crazy.  You could be giving your keystrokes to a Russian gang.  Your browser no longer takes you to google.com when you click on the homepage button.  Maybe a trojan horse is installing some hackers program to take control of your system.  If you operate the pc in an administrative account (as most users do!)  the malware has rights to do just about anything to your system.  All manner of changes to your system will now make it down right impossible to remove the rogue program(s).

What can I do for protection?

1 Patch your OS, browser, and various software to keep it updated.
2 Keep your current security software updated and active.
3 Don’t click on any pop-ups for security software. 
4 Limit active X and scripting in your browser preferrences.  Seek professional help with this from a computer repair shop or a consultant.
5 Back up.  Sometimes a bad infection will require a complete reformat and reinstallation of your hard drive and OS.
6 Run your updated antivirus and antispyware at least weekly.

If you are concerned that any of your network pcs may be compromised give us a call.  We do small business IT support so you don’t have to!