# Tools needed for field PC Tech



## caseyjoes (Jun 29, 2009)

I recently received my A+ certification. I am trying to find out what tools are going to be needed to perform my job. Is a laptop computer going to be helpful to a field technician? I have a pretty good understanding of the necessary hardware tools I will need but I'm not certain about the software tools. I plan on starting a home based business that will be performing on-site service and repairs.


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## gameguru (Apr 26, 2009)

Hirens boot cd, sysinternals.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd 
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx

just some of them


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## CrazyChicken23 (Feb 11, 2009)

I bought my netbook specifically for this, given that I'm often on my motorcycle.
I have a mobile computer repair business myself.

You're definitely going to want some cabling to be able to run IDE/SATA drives on your computer via USB, which is very helpful when it comes to spyware problems, or quickly retrieving data the client thought to be lost.
Also, small non-magnetic tools of course.
Boot discs
I carry around Ubuntu on a flash drive as well, and the majority of the software packages I recommend to clients, on another.
Always carry extra cables, USB, VGA, and Cat5.
This here is a good collection of free software.
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-downloads.htm

For me, nothing much else has been required.


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## Ddraig (Jul 10, 2009)

Spinrite is pretty good for repairing Hard Drives. Usually ones that have had some type of file corruption and windows won't boot properly. Can save some time having to reinstall the OS, and will fix bad sectors on the disk. http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

Many of the tools from MS sysinternals can prove to be very helpful.
More than others process explorer, autoruns and tcpview I have found to be usefull when trying to figure out what a user has configured.

There are so many others but I have found that getting to know these can give you an amazing amount of info.

I also recently found out about a prog called SIW. It is a stand alone system info prog that is pretty detailed.

Below is a few links concerning reading MS error logs that I am in the process of trying to learn more about.


http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
http://elliottback.com/wp/how-to-analyze-windows-xp-bsod-minidump-files/
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246
http://www.ifoundafix.com/2008/02/05/reading-and-troubleshooting-the-windows-minidump-dmp-file/


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## mervin (Jun 1, 2009)

gameguru said:


> Hirens boot cd, sysinternals.
> 
> http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx
> ...


This is probably the ONLY disc you'll ever need to repair or diagnose virtually any computer problem.


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## caseyjoes (Jun 29, 2009)

I really appreciate everyones help, this is some very useful information.

Thanks Again!!


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## Blade_Jones (Feb 5, 2005)

Is there a freeware for testing hardware? The equivalent of ExpertCheck or Dell's built in diagnostic test?


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## gameguru (Apr 26, 2009)

It really does depend on what hardware type, here is a link to everything PC and hardware related it may take a while to get through all of the sites::wave:

Good Luck

http://users.erols.com/chare/hardware.htm


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## caseyjoes (Jun 29, 2009)

I have tried several different methods and still have not been able to burn a "Bootable" disk for Hirens. I have downloaded and burned several other boot disk but Hirens has been giving me a real problem. Can anyone offer any adivice? I would really appreciate it.


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## Blade_Jones (Feb 5, 2005)

Not sure if this is elementary or not but a bootable file usually ends with a .ISO file extension. I use the freeware ImgBurn to burn CD's or DVD's with .ISO files.


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