How to Repair a Laptop when You Have No Virus Protection Boulder CO

Steps

1. Download and burn an Ubuntu LiveCD at the following link: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2. Ubuntu is a free Linux based operating system which can be used without installing, because it?s a Linux Operating system you will nullify the chance of any of the viruses spreading.
3. Boot from the cd and just say you want to try Ubuntu without installing.
4. You will get a screen quite similar to your regular windows screen. The difference is the start button appears at the top of the screen.
5. Connect your remote storage device. An external hard drive is recommended, a USB stick or an MP3 player or something along those lines will also be able to do the trick. The external hard drive however is usually bigger so you can store more data.
6. Click on places in the start menu and open both the hard drive of the laptop and the external hard drive.
7. Browse in your hard drive and search for the files you still want to keep, and copy them to your hard drive. Please only copy data files such as pictures, text, spreadsheets, videos, etc. Avoid saving any programs because viruses can infect them.
8. Once everything is backed up you will need to re-install your operating system of preference. If you like Ubuntu you can even install Ubuntu now. Look at the related articles on how to install XP or Vista.
9. Once your operating system is installed, install a virus scanner. Some prefer AVAST because it is a good program, and they offer a home version for free. http://avast.com
10. Plug in your remote storage device and scan it for viruses as its still possible there are viruses in the files you backed up. This is just to be safe.
11. Once you copy your data back to the laptop, take the time to create a complete backup. This will save you hours of time and frustration. There are several good online backup solutions. We use Carbonite which costs less than $50.00 a year and will let you back up multiple computers.

Tips

• While installing a the operating system make sure you do a clean full installation. This means you will start from scratch.
• Software installed on your PC might be lost unless its included in windows itself. You might want to check for program names etc to reinstall before you reinstall your operating system, a great place to do this is the software tab under control panel. Only write down the ones which you know as some of the programs between there may be useless.

Warnings

• By following this guide you will lose everything on your computer that isn 't backed up properly, this includes drivers so some pieces of hardware like sound cards and video cards might not work properly or at all after this. If you don 't know what you are doing go to the nearest IT-shop and explain the situation. It will cost u a fair amount of money but at least you will be sure its done properly. Go to a PC-store AFTER you backed up the data, as they will hardly ever will back-up files. Just say you want them to reinstall windows and the needed drivers.

Things You'll Need

• A second computer which you can use to download and burn a CD.
• A new operating system you want to install, this can be a cd you already own, you don 't need to buy another windows copy if you already have one.
• An external back-up medium that is large enough to store all files like an external hard drive or a USB thumb drive. Anything that can store data really. You might even be able to use a cell phone if it has bluetooth.

Sources and Citations

• http://thecomputerrepairking.com/http:/thecomputerrepairking.com/five-things-you-should-do-when-your-computer-goes-on-strike

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