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Usually, if you keep your computer long enough, Windows is going to go belly up for some reason and have to be reinstalled.

There are many reasons that Windows may have to be reinstalled. If the power drops out while Windows is writing to the disk in the system area, you could end up with serious corruption. A poorly written program could wipe out something it shouldn’t. Windows and programs store critical information needed to run, and if something corrupts the registry, you’re out of luck. If the hard drive is going bad or has gone bad, Windows will definitely have to be reinstalled. Or, Windows could just be bored and decide to corrupt itself just to drive you crazy!

Regardless of the cause, this is one of the most time consuming operations you can do with your computer as far as maintenance is concerned.

Many tech support people at major manufacturers like to tell you to put in the system restore disk and boot into the recovery partition and restore your system. Unfortunately for you, that usually wipes out everything on the hard drive, so while Windows is back to the way it was when you got the machine (including all the useless trial software, utilities, etc. that came with it), it also means your documents, pictures, music, etc. are most likely also gone. That isn’t usually what you had in mind.

While you should have your data backed up safely someplace other than your hard drive, the reality is that most people don’t. I can remove the hard drive from your system and hook it to a special diagnostic computer at my shop and try and copy the data from the old hard drive before wiping it out and reinstalling Windows. I get whatever I can, but there’s no guarantee everything will be saved. Especially if a program stores its data in a non-standard location.

I also attempt to backup the drivers on your system that are necessary for Windows to run. Drivers can often be the most difficult things to track down when reinstalling Windows, especially if the machine is older.

I also try and use special software to find the installation keys for some of your major software, but that isn’t always possible.

Once Windows is reinstalled, I reinstall the drivers, copy back your data, download and install all the updates from Microsoft for your computer and then install the basic software you need to surf the web such as Adobe Reader, Flash, etc., and install my recommended anti-virus software for you.

I charge a flat rate of 250.00 to reiinstall Windows, which is a bargain considering how time consuming it can be to do yourself.

Any other special software, printer and other peripheral items, etc. will either need to be reinstalled by you, or I can do them at my standard consulting rate.

A Windows reinstall is never any fun, but by using me to do the majority of the grunt work, you can take the worry away and have your system back up and running!

Call today for an appointment if you think you may need your operating system reinstalled, or if you need to have your data recovered if you lost your hard drive and have no backups.