PCS Newsletter & Info

Can’t find a convenient time for computer service? Let us help. If you've been putting off having some regular maintenance done (which we recommend once a year for most), your computer is running slow, or you’ve seen more popup ads lately and it never seems to be a good time to have it serviced, let us help. If you’re going to be away, it’s the perfect time to bring it in for service. While you’re gone, we’ll complete the service and have it ready for you on your return. You won’t even miss your computer. Call us at 308.344.8884 or stop by 301 East 1st St, Ste #7; let us make it easy for you.

Customers with Windows 7 installed on their PC, please take note.
Support for Microsoft Windows 7 has come to an end. Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will reach end of support on January 14, 2020.

Ok, I’ve decided to get a new computer. What if I want some of the data from the old one to the new one?
We can help with that. Over the years, we have helped numerous customers’ transition from an old computer to a new one. Give us a call or come talk with us at 301 East 1st St, Suite #7. We’ll try to help make this shift a little smoother.

If you would like to see more information regarding Windows 7 End of Support information you can visit Microsoft’s website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-end-of-life-support-information

It's that time of the year. Our annual reminder about backing up your data. Some of you may have seen this information before, may it be a friendly reminder. If you have not, may we all learn from this.

Now that tax season is upon us, think of your answer to this question: Are you gambling with your data? What if you don't have any bookkeeping on your computer, but you have pictures, music, videos, documents, recipes, genealogy information, whatever it may be: are you gambling with this data?

Here's a recent example: A customer's 3 year old computer does not boot successfully and comes up with an error message on the screen. It's determined that the hard drive had failed. Unfortunately, this computer has some documents and videos that had not been backed up, nor a backup of any kind since ownership of the computer, in other words for the past 3 years. So when we we're asked if we could just copy the data/information to a different computer, in this hard drive failure incident, we could not. Here's where the customer frustration verbalizes. Hard drives fail, its mechanical and electrical stuff all rolled up in one component. However, I did suggest that you can send it to a data recovery center and they probably could. To which they asked how much, and my best speculation would be starting at least $400-500. This may or may not be sensible solution depending on the information.

I wish could have waved a magic wand or say the magic words, but I can't. Please don't 'gamble' with your data. We want to help avert any frustration that may happen. Think of it this way, if your computer did not work tomorrow, what data and information would you miss having? That's what you should backup. Maybe you don't have anything that you would miss or if it's all gone, its fine. Wonderful. Most people have something that they would like to have.

I know that we harp on the importance of backing up your data, but we want to help you avoid this frustration. Let's look at some options. USB flash drives are economical to purchase and offer a quick and easy way to have documents, music, pictures and the like. External hard drives are also a solution for larger amounts. You can "burn" your data to a CD if your computer is equipped with a CD burner or DVD burner. You can use a cloud based service if you wish. Print out a 'hard copy' of your important data. Even better yet, keep a copy of your data off- premise, this is best. How often you decide to back up your data will be up to you. I would suggest you determine this by how much data you want to input if you have a failure; failure as a worse case scenario.

As we begin this tax season, or any other time of year, remember to not gamble with your data. Back up, backup, backup.