Tag: computer services
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
Outlook vs. Gmail, Which One Should You Choose?
In the past year, many people have moved to the popular Gmail and apps for running their email system. Some of these people completely got off using Outlook and moved to the web based Gmail and smartphone/iPad/tablet instead. Some continued to use Outlook for their email reader but used the Gmail servers. As an avid fan and knowledgeable troubleshooter of Outlook, I never feared everyone leaving Outlook for Gmail, but wondered how this Gmail would change business email.
This past week I have received three calls from clients asking to get back on Outlook and off of Gmail servers, too many glitches and issues. So needless to say, I was quite happy to hear that folks are coming back to Outlook and using their own servers for email again. YAY.
Here are a few factors to consider before switching over to Gmail if you are on the fence. (or just submit a request and have us help you)
If you are an average emailer and want a decent free email, Gmail is the way to go. I have to recommend it over yahoo, hotmail and other free email services. I see less hacking from Gmail and it does play nicely with Outlook for the most part. I will tell folks that it’s sometimes simple to set up Gmail in Outlook, sometimes not. Usually it is. Call us at 612-865-4475 if you are confused.
If you are in business for yourself and have your own website domain and email from a company such as Go Daddy, then staying on your own system is what I recommend. Outlook and Go Daddy play fairly well together and if you have two computers, I recommend getting IMAP, so you can have the two computers and Outlook synchronize. Go Daddy’s support is very good and fairly quick, so if you have an issue with your email, contacting them is a breeze.
If you are in business for yourself and want to use Gmail and other Google products, then most of my clients have a software company move all of their information to Google for them. Not many people do it themselves and we here at Call That Girl do not offer that service. Mostly because we are a Microsoft shop and support Microsoft products. Clash of the titans? Nah, I just don’t believe in everything being in the cloud. I really like that email can be stored offline and backed up locally. I also like that many email accounts can be run in Outlook with different inboxes and managed separately. I don’t like Gmail folder structure either, but then again, I am old school Outlook and to get me to move will be very difficult, if never.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of some Google products, like the calendar synch tool, gtalk and their analytics, but that’s about it. I have been troubleshooting Gmail for years and am quite knowledgable about the product, just not a fan of it. So if you are reading this blog and are on the fence yourself on what choice to make, feel free to comment below and I will try to help figure out your best course of action. Check out our website to find out more about our other areas of expertise!
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.
