Category: General
Delta Airline Ticket Virus Coming Back in Email
Just an FYI to my friends online, just watch for an email that has a zip file attached, Do not open it! Just delete it. It is fake and Delta has already been alerted of it, and sent out a release to their customers with a warning.
If you have opened it, the virus attacks fast. It deletes all of your icons and hides your programs and data. To schedule an appointment with us to remove it remotely, click the image below.
We are here to help!
World Backup Week, Are you backing up your stuff?
Today is World Backup Day, but of course it’s on a Sunday and barely anyone is going to do it. They should have scheduled it on a Tuesday or Wednesday when people aren’t relaxing and spending time with their families. Anyway, it’s April 1 and although my joke on Facebook that Best Buy sold Geek Squad and hired Call That Girl for their Minnesota onsite support got almost 60 likes in just an hour…. backing up your data…is no joke! Theft, fire, hard drive crashing, deleting your own stuff by accident, it all can happen…any time, any day.
Let’s talk about backing up! Solutions and stuff like that.
If you have never backed up your stuff, now is the time to consider it, at least do it once! Just think of all those pictures you would lose, memories gone forever. If you have never cried over missing memories, it’s not something you want to experience. Let’s also add in all the documents you have created, tax forms you have done, music collections you built, the list really can go on and on. So let’s get started….
For home users, I recommend monthly backup
For business users, I recommend daily backup
Here are some solutions
- External hard drives, they work great but can break and fail. The bonus of external hard drives is that you can take them from one computer to another fast and moving data in general is faster than online back up and restoring files.
- File sharing from two computers, using software such as Dropbox or other online sharing programs. I would not recommend this as your only backup solution, but it’s a good start.
- Online software such as Mozy. Click here to start a free 2 gig trial
- If you test it and buy it today (April 1) use this code to get 25% off your subscription Code: WORLDBACKUP
- Use this code for the month of April Code: MOZY4ALL
- Click here to just buy Mozy. Use the codes! They offer these randomly and I usually try to promote it as it’s a great deal. Also, as a preferred vendor of ours, we can help you set it up too for $59 if you would like our help. Their monthly payment plans are as low as $9.99 or $5.99.
- Click on the icon to get started or submit a request with us to help you do it. Sometimes it’s just easier for you if we do it. Many of our clients are thankful we have set them up with Mozy. And if you’re a Carbonite fan, I have had only problems with their software. I’m not a fan of Carbonite at all.
Click here to have us help, that’s what we are here for.
Are you a data hoarder, like me?
(pictures coming! they got lost in the website upgrade!)
That’s a picture of my hard drive on my laptop. Nice huh? I didn’t even think to look at the size of it until Windows alerted me that I was “very low on disk space” and earlier…my Dropbox told me that I was out of space there and I have a 50 gig account. Just because I run a technical business, doesn’t mean that I am technically perfect with my data. I do back up though, and that is important…but things are pretty sad when your assistant tells you that you are a hoarder. I can’t help it, I’m very creative, I’m a quick thinker and most importantly…I’m savvy enough to do a lot of things myself and FAST. If you’re like me, you may have the exact same issues. Our email boxes are clogged (because we are communications freaks and can never delete anything), our documents folders are insanely packed with little screen shots of everything we have made, images off the internet or just random thoughts of insanity (I have 100′s of text files from notepad lol). My beginnings have no ends! Well, they do have ends because I get stuff done, but now I need to really reign in these issues and take control for once. Stop the data hoarding. I will not hire a therapist!!!
It’s time for me to have a “data tune up” of sorts. Get some data off this computer and get things all squared up. …it’s time to let go. Free myself of years of data and stupid ideas that never went anywhere or worse yet, just OLD stuff that I MADE NEW to replace it. Why do I need that? The big question is, what do I need to keep and what can I pitch? I can’t pitch anything…I fear I will want to use it again or need it and there is no solid solution for me but to get yet even more data storage and figure out a way to search it fast and use it fast. Or…do the impossible and delete old data. <insert a tear here>
I started the data hoarding clean up with moving everything off of my laptop and into the Dropbox account. Then I went through the Dropbox data and moved anything past 3 months out of it and on to the computer at the office. That computer is also getting backed up daily from Mozy.com
What to do after that? Now I have moved all the data, but have I done anything that will help my data hoarding issue? I have to “go through” (my aunt’s favorite words) the data that I don’t need to use in my daily life yet again and delete, delete, delete unfortunately. I seriously do not need all of this data anymore! I still can’t delete, it’s like giving up a part of my soul.
Everything is in order for data deletion. Now…I can’t pull the trigger. But my laptop is now free of all that unused Dropbox data and it can breathe happy again. I gave the computer a whole tune up as well and it’s running quite nice now! Watch for part 2 next week of how I deleted my data and what steps I went through to get it cleaned up. I plan on doing it over the weekend, and it will be a tough one for me!
7 Things You Should Never Do To Your Computer
Did you know?
- That the longer you leave a computer in a repair state, the harder and more expensive it may be to fix?
- That Googling repairs yourself does work, but often times gets you in worse situations
- You trying to fix complex issues yourself can lead you down a road of hours of wasted time and might take us longer to repair, thus costing you even more time and money
- Free is free. Pay for the good stuff. Submit a request here to save that time and money
- Not backing up your critical data can cost you $1,000’s later (data recovery)
Things you should never do
- Factory restore/reset on your computer unless you have all of your data backed up. I mean ALL.
- Edit the Registry, unless you really know what you’re doing (this is for the Googlers)
- Take apart your laptop to look at the motherboard (laptop teardowns are complex, take time and have tons of tiny parts that are not easy to put back together once taken apart.)
- Reinstall your operating system without application and drivers disks (You will not have access to the internet afterwards, no sound, no graphics software, etc)
- Delete data on your computer if you are not 100% sure of what it is (Like large mysterious files)
- Put your computer into an oven to fix it, just please do not do this
- Lay your laptop on ice to cool it down if it’s getting hot to the touch (instead, lift the back end up with a book and blow out the fan ports with dust air)
Things you can do if you are experiencing problems
- Restart your computer if things are not working right (a restart puts everything back into place usually)
- Turn off your computer on occasion, let it breathe
- If your computer is shutting off randomly and is not hot, take out the battery and power cord for 10 minutes, plug in the power cord only and start up the computer. Batteries going bad are a large factor when computers just shut off.
- System restore if…
- You just did something to your computer and it’s not working right
- A Windows update went bad and things don’t work right on your computer
- You’re sure you have everything backed up, or can back up before the system restore
Now that you’ve read the list, you may be interested in knowing a few things about repair shops and Call That Girl
- Sometimes what seems like an easy fix may not be. Sometimes we charge a flat fee for a repair, but spend hours working on the issue. That is why on occasion, a repair is not fixed in one or two days.
- Unlike the big box giants, our repairs stay in Minnesota, no depots here at Call That Girl
- Our remote helpdesk is run by people in Minnesota
- Our prices at Call That Girl can never “match the competition” because we are already priced lower than the big box giants and most of our local competitors
- We do run specials and offer coupons, if you’re out to save money, watch our newsletters and website.
Time to change your passwords!
With spring here and the changeover for daylight savings time, I thought right now would be a good time to remind everyone to change their passwords for most of their online accounts. Most people do not ever change their passwords unless forced by the online sites. Really? Yep. I see it all the time. Nobody likes changing their passwords and usually when they do it, it’s a very similar password that they just used. Is that ok? Yes, but I do recommend on occasion to change it completely.
What are good passwords? Uppercase/lowercase letter, numbers and special characters, 6-8 is the golden rule!
If you have a simple password, such as “password”, you definitely need to change your password!
Sites where you should change your password:
- Banking sites
- Paypal
- Email marketing
- YouTube
- Snapfish. Flckr, etc
- eBay and Amazon
- Craigslist
Home Security
- Wireless Router
- Router Login
- Your computer (if it has a password)
5 Star Home Service Visit
This year we have decided to change our usual spring cleaning deal to include a bit more than a usual remote tune up. We have added on a more robust tune up and deep cleaning and offering some open question/answer time. Many of our clients love to just ask tons of questions, now is the time to get them answered!
Isn’t it time you enjoyed a computer repair visit at your home?
Luxury 5 Start Home Visit $99 for one hour (usually $125)
- Dust out of the inside of your computer
- Cord organization
- Fix minor issues with printers, computer connectivity
- Tune-up
- Sit down consultation (have a few questions? Ask them now!)
- Additional hours $75 (save $50!)
At our shop premier cleaning and inspection $59.00
- Dust out of the inside of your computer
- Deep cleaning
- 20 minutes of consulting time to ask general questions
Offer Expires: March 31, 2012
Call 612-865-4475 to book an appointment or submit a request here
