Kudos to you!

Making a backup is very (veryveryvery) much easier than it used to be. I personally use the solution described above by busterb. External hd, Acronis TrueImage to "image" the hard drives. It's very easy, complete, reliable, inexpensive--I know I'm gushing here, but I, like many of my colleagues here, bear some painful backup scars and those days are largely gone. The small distributed backups are just soooo easy anymore, anybody, including you, Cloud, can do them. And should do them. :)

"Don't want to do it myself"

Well, then, I'm the wrong person to ask. I understand people *do* have other's work on their computers, but I never do. I'm mr fixit m'self.

As for tune ups... heheh... was at work early the other day, a little before 7:00 and the locked front door opens and in walks this stranger! I approached him and he approached me. We exchanged good mornings and Can I help you? [suspicious] Turns out he's the contracted HVAC technician, which explains his possession of our door key, and he asked if I was comfortable with the temperature. Um ok, but I run cold. I wear my coat and hat in the office 11 months of the year. Why? No reason, hey! You're the computer guy, right?

Well, that was really all he wanted. His computer (which he had hopefully brought along) was utterly hoses by crapware. There's this "anti spyware company" that advertises their spyware removal services by infecting your computer with spyware. Like a glazier advertising on bricks. Smell something burning? Yes, those would be the fires of irony fed by the debris of someone's broken ethics.

Long story short, would I take a look at his computer. I would and I did. It took all day, and I removed literally hundreds of occurrences of some kind of crap, the cumulative weight of which rendered his browser non functional, and chewed up the majority of his processor cycles. I cleaned it up for him but he could not have done it himself.

That's cool. I have a job because this stuff happens All. The. Time.

Your question "What's worth it?" Toughie. Do you scrub your own car at the coin-op carwash or do you schedule the mobile detailer to shine it up? Slice and dice your own home grown veg or snap your fingers and shout "Garcon!"? I don't know. I can't say.

This is like a car mechanic question. Is it worth it? Should I change the oil? yes. Every week? no. should I have my windshield washer system backflushed? Ah, no. I guess the answer is to find someone you know and trust (like us) but that also knows you *and* your computer situation and habits to get a clearer picture of what's "worth it".

Then ask that guy to fix it for you. :)

okie dokie! The main reason I want to take it in, other than physical cleaning, is that my audio visual doesn't work. My multimedia audio controller was hang-firing my computer every time I went to turn it off, so I scrubbed it. But I want it back now! (or at least some version of it, hopefully that won't hang it up.)

I've just been delaying, 'cause I kept thinking--well, I have to back up first. But at some point, it's just better to do it, even without the backup, I think.

After the weekend :)

When it comes to backing up your data, external HDD's are NOT a permanent solution. The reason being there is NO difference between an internal and an external HDD, therefore whatever can go wrong with one can go wrong with the other. If you want something more secure I've got 4 suggestions for you (in the most feesable order):

1. DVD - Backup your data onto DVD's (not the best, especially if you need to access the information on a regular basis)

2. Online Backups - you can actually subsrcibe to online data storage websites that do tape backups of your information nightly. (by far the safest)

3. RAID - this method uses multiple Hard Drives, which all store not only there own information on them, but they also store a piece of the other HDD's on them, this way when one HDD goes down, you can put a new one in and it can rebuild itself from the information the others HDD's had about each other. (if you're not a tech i wouldn't recomend it)

4. SSD - Solid State Disks are hard drives with no moving parts, therefore they waaaaaay more reliable. The problem with these is that they're so new they're very expensive and they don't make them too big. (60GB is the biggest i've seen)

Also when backing up your data definetely check these locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Favorites - for your favorites
C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Desktop - for anything thats been sitting on your desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\My Documents - probably where most of your data is stored
C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook - anything in here that ends in .pst is an outlook personal folder (if you use outlook only)
C:\ - some people save stuff directly on the root of C, i dont recomend doing it, but dont forget to check there.

do you mean your sound dosen't work??

that's right, 'cause I uninstalled it.

*ahem*

ext hd has the advantage of being *doable* for all the reasons listed above. Can a hd crash? yep. chances are low. can two hds crash? yep. chances are low times low.

Plus, Cloud specifically talked about backup of her system. Not merely copies of this file and that file. Could be a substantial difference.

All the items you list have their own vulnerabilities too. In fact after you disparage the ext hd option, you then proceed to recommend four different answers. Which involve the same risk and the same device: a hard drive!

The question is how to back up a home computer. I'm unconvinced your four options answer the question.

For windows xp you can use device manager to reinstall a piece of hardware to your system and let xp reinstall the drivers. Pretty easy. Wanna try it?

(confused) but it's not hardware, it's software, isn't it? And I actually have tried to reinstall it using my original discs, but couldn't figure it out, and I don't want to accidentally reinstall everything.

I made the decision to live without sound to make my computer turn off. But I want both now, wah!

Cloud, it sounds like you may just need to reinstall the sound driver. Right click your "My Computer" icon --> Properties --> "Hardware" tab --> "Device Manager", does anything have a red X, Exclamation point, or yellow question mark next to it?

The risk is low, but yet it's still there. External HDD's are almost alway sold in shock mounted enclosures, but still if that thing falls off your desk and slams into the floor, especially while the disks are spinning, you are officially SOL. At least your internal hdd is mounted to the case so it's actually more protected than your external.

backing up a system does not necassarily mean "cloning" or "ghosting" the HDD, which is making a carbon copy of the entire drive.

every single answer i listed is safer then just using a regular hdd


BigV, i'm not trying to "shit on you" or "flex on you" but trust me i know what im talking about, i do this for a living.

I don't mind paying someone who knows what they're doing to tune it up so it will last me a few years longer. Here's the Geek Squad price list, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what do go for:

http://www.geeksquad.com/pricing/#section3

It's like a complicated restaurant menu! They may not be the best choice, but it's one that's convenient and available.

it looks like this one is your best bet:

Advanced Diagnostic With Repair (diagnostic, cleaning, virus/spyware removal, OS repair, optimization, software updates)

if you set on just bringing it somewhere you may want to compare geeksquds prices with a local repair shop. often times local guys are way cheaper and almost always more knowledgable. just from what you've told me it sounds like you have a bad driver (the software that controls the hardware), a simple reinstallation will probably fix it. if your pc is name brand (dell, hp, toshiba) you can go to there websites, type in the model number and download the sound driver for free. if it's not the sound driver, it may be the physical sound card itself, if your pc is like most, the sound card is "onboard", meaning it's built right into the motherboard. if they tell you that the soundcard is bad and it IS onboard, before they try hustling you into a new motherboard remember you can probably just buy a PCI soundcard for 20 bucks and have it running better than before. i know it can be a little confusing, but if you have any questions just ask.

There are many, many things you can easily and safely do yourself. Sure there are some things that pay to pay a pro, but there aren't many. With so much information available and so many experts around, you can probably just ask a few questions and get it done by yourself. It seems to me there are several knowledgeable people right here in the cellar. Don't be afraid to try it with help. I am sure the friendly folks here will give step-by-step instructions you can print out and follow.

I am sure some will throw stones at me for this, but as far as backups and/or copies go, I personally just make copies of things (files) I want to keep. If the actual software or OS goes south to the point that I would want a "re-do" I would rather just perform a clean install and re-install my favorite programs and then recover my back up files. I just keep a list of my must have programs so I can remember what it is that I want to remember.

yes, I'm afraid of being hustled. Just like a car repair place.

I have our local work tech bois that I could ask, but I was thinking they'd be more expensive. I trust them more than some strangers, but I'd be a little ashamed, too.

Seeing as how there's GOT to be a ton of cat hair in there. (blush)

they might not be able to help you even if they want to. i do desktop support as well and it's strictly prohibited for us to fix someones pc outside of the company. if you don't mind me asking what kind of pc is it, and how old is it?