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You gotta love average PC users......

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wp34:

--- Quote from: Level42 on August 13, 2009, 05:05:00 pm ---next I ask him for the system restore DVD's he should have created when he bought the laptop. You may guess what his reply was.

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--- Quote from: Level42 on August 13, 2009, 05:05:00 pm ---
Sigh....and this is a young person who you'd expect to have grown up with computers.....

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I work at a local university and we see this kind of thing all the time.  In our case they cobble up the computer so much with spyware and viruses that it is inoperable.  They look at you with that deer in the headlights look when you mention the original restore CD's.  What makes it worse is that they think they are computer geniuses because they do Facebook.

saint:

--- Quote from: TOK on August 13, 2009, 08:24:15 pm ---I'm working on a friends computer as I type this. Its going through a spyware/malware scan.
This is the most screwed up computer I've ever seen that is actually still running. The crap on here is so bad that it won't let you download or run things to repair it.

He couldn't find any of his original software, or I would have just blown it out and started over. I've probably spent 3 hours dicking around with this thing over the course of the last few nights. The worst thing is that I know when I give it back clean, it'll be all screwed up again in two months.


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Image it before you give it back

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: saint on August 13, 2009, 09:18:16 pm ---
--- Quote from: TOK on August 13, 2009, 08:24:15 pm ---I'm working on a friends computer as I type this. Its going through a spyware/malware scan.
This is the most screwed up computer I've ever seen that is actually still running. The crap on here is so bad that it won't let you download or run things to repair it.

He couldn't find any of his original software, or I would have just blown it out and started over. I've probably spent 3 hours dicking around with this thing over the course of the last few nights. The worst thing is that I know when I give it back clean, it'll be all screwed up again in two months.


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Image it before you give it back

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Or use something like CloneZilla to strip out the unused portion of the drive image. The drive image can't be restored using standard tools though, you'll need a CloneZilla or some other sucessor to pull it off. I just successfully compressed a 20GB drive after the unused sectors were noted then removed, all the slack was taken up then fed through a compression routine. It's now a collection of files no larger than 10GB sitting on a different hard drive waiting for a new HDD. If you can prep the drive and strip out enough crap and just leave the OS itself (like after a fresh install), you can create an image to be stored on a DVD or 2. Then attach a DVD pouch just inside the case and leave the image with the PC. I used to do that for years with all my PC's in my pre-Linux driven days.

IG-88:
My 65 yr old father in law has me "fixing" his computer at least once a quarter. It doesn't matter how much I preach to him that certain sites (if you get my meaning) need to be kept away from. He swears everytime that he doesn't visit those type of sites yet the evidence is plain. I love to tease my wife about it. She gets completely embarrassed.   :lol

SavannahLion:
Modify his HOSTS file.

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