Tag: Computer Repair St. Paul MN
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!
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)
10 reasons why Call That Girl is a great computer support option for your business of any size!
10 reasons why Call That Girl is a great computer support option for your business of any size!
1.) Awesome live helpdesk support (call in anytime!)
2.) Night and weekend support (for those workaholics)
3.) Smartphone assistance (Droid, iPhone and Blackberry) and (((synching issues too!)))
4.) PC and Mac repairs (hardware and software)
5.) Outlook help (who doesn’t have Outlook problems?)
6.) Online backup solutions (we can set this all up for you remotely)
7.) Printer, wifi and small network technicians available for onsite or remote help
8.) Prepay discount plans for those smaller businesses who want to save money and have helpdesk support “on the fly”
9.) We are customer service support specialists. We enjoy what we do and we do it well. We just love fixin’
10.) We have a great antivirus protection plan that offers…
a. Free lifetime product license
b. Email updates for alerts/outbreaks and upgrades of products
c. Free virus removals
d. $69.99 first year, $39.00 2nd year
e. Volume discounts
Now about you…
•If you are a one person company, we are a great solution for you and your budget. Pay as you need or buy our prepaid discount plan for minutes “on the clock” to use.
•If your company has 2-30 employees, we create one company ticket for you and any or all employees can call in as they need assistance. Just think of us as your own helpdesk
•If your company is larger and has a managed IT contract that you want to keep, but want to use our services for certain computer related repairs…we are a no-compete company. We have partnerships with many managed IT companies and work with them to get your computers up and running quickly. Many of our specialties that we do fast are virus removals, tune-ups and Outlook assistance.
Call Lisa today at 612-865-4475 or email lisa@callthatgirl.biz to discuss setting up a consultation and get us on your calendar to start enjoying your IT support again. Mention this blog and get 25% off your first appointment with us.
5 ways to save money when buying a new computer
Morning everyone! Today’s blog has a few tips on how to save money while buying a new computer. Be warned, some of the tips are of course to offer our services, but read the whole blog and you will find many other tips in the reading.
1.) I have to put on the list…is hire us to help you buy it. We can do a remote session with you, remote into your computer and help you find a few computers online that fit your needs, your future computing needs and your budget. Things we can discuss are if your old software is compatible, your printer is compatable, what hard drive size is right for you, backup solutions, antivirus programs you need and just answer every question you have. We book usually 30 minutes for this consult, at $59 for this consultation, we find we save you money because most people go to a store and listen to a sales person and walk out of the store OVERBUYING. Working with us gives you the straight answers because you are paying us. If you want an expensive computer, we will make sure you get it and show you a few different models. If your budget is tight, we can find you many models that are inexpensive and you can get more bang for your buck if you do it right.
2.) Don’t overbuy! Simple, a sale person is making commission so be prepared if you go into a store to be upsold to death. Be sure you’re buying what you need and can afford. What do you need? Everyone wants fast fast fast….most computers out now come standard with what you need and they are pretty fast.
3.) They say skip buying the store’s extended warranty. I am on the fence with this becuase I do think people in business should buy it, mostly because it’s your business computer and you need it fix asap. For home users, it’s iffy…if your last computer worked great for 8 years, this one will probably last that long too. Figure out your repairs you made for the past 8 years (for hardware) and it is equal to what you paid for it, you might want a warranty. If way less, you may not need it. Most extended warranties are $100-$200 and it’s just like insurance, you don’t use it you lose it. Many give you a new battery on the plan, so make sure you get that if anything!
4.) Do you really need Microsoft Office? What do you need with this program that a generic can’t do for you? People today are telling me that the Office programs are very expensive and if you don’t need Outlook, why not try the generic version of Word/Excel/Powerpoint? Try openoffice.org Using these free tools can save you up to $120 if you were going to buy the home and student version of Microsoft office.
5.) Finally the last way to save money. Can you setup the computer yourself? Don’t hire Dell to do the home install…their rates are much higher than paying us or a local company to come out and do the set up. They don’t have many extra’s in their install package, we actually sit and help you figure out all the bells and whistles. Many people hire us to help them or do it themselves until they get in a pinch. We do computer set ups for pc and macs and don’t mind getting on the floor and figuring out all the cords. If you are in business, having a professional company do the set up is worth the money. If you are a home user, it’s worth it if you don’t know what you’re doing. We save you headaches!
To book an appointment with us, please submit a request on the link below. We look forward to helping you before, after or when you have a computer headache and aspirin isn’t helping!
