PC TURNAROUND TIME....streamline..

[TEXNET]

Hi to everyone in the forum!!

I am currently trying to streamline my turn around time on PC's that come in for repair. The bottle necks in my process appear to be as follows-

1/ Moving client data off a machine to a hard drive and back again
2/ Obtaining drivers for machines after a fresh install
3/ Installation of extras such as firefox, Office, AVG, fresh desktop backgrounds, burning software etc.

Questions:
Bottleneck item 1 ......the main problem is if i just drag and drop documents and go away I often come back and it has stopped half way through a large bunch of data and gives some kind of error like cant copy this type of file.
Does anyone use a particular program that just copies everything over no questions asked?

Bottleneck item 2 ......I am aware of the driver packs site but I have had little success in getting the drivers to install automatically. Does anyone know or have a link to how these can auto install? How do you do this efficiently?

Bottleneck item 3 ......I use nlite to slipstream XP with SP3 and IE7+ Mediaplayer11. This is no problem and works great!
The problem for me is how do I add the likes of firefox, AVG, Office......I may be wrong but I do not believe these can be slip streamed using nlite.

Anyone know of a way to create a disk that will auto install these items?

It would be great for everyone to share there tips and tricks for these items as I am sure most of us waste a lot of time doing all this stuff manually ....or is it just me?

Any advice would be great

Thanks in advance one and all!!

 

[Sevdog]

For your first problem you can look for TeraCopy in the Computer Repair Tools section. Per the article It is freeware file-copying utility that tries to copy a file several times and if it fails, it skips the file and continues. Haven't personally tried it yet but it may be what you need.

 

[l337]

#1 use terra copy portable or unstopable copier to avoid errors/inrease copy speed

#2 is often unavoidable but u can do your best to keep drivers like AC97 audio or nvidia drivers on hand as they are pretty common

#3 i belive firefox might be possible but im having a little bit of trouble tinkering with the setup atm. as for AVG and Office AVG is ruled out straight up cause it needs a license key thats generated during the install which nlite cant replicate. and office might be possible but you would have to use your own key and change it later to the customers license key then you run into conflicts like diff keys for diff versions.

but you could make a cd with a cmd prompt to go thru and install avg with the cmd switches im pretty sure that will work fine

 

[Comtech Solutions]

I use drivermax pre and post install. Takes a long time post install, but at least it's all done automatically. Hit import and walk away...

 

[ASDCR]

for the drivers, we have a file i think someone downloaded from The Pirate Bay - it has just about ALL the drivers out there

its a huge file

(did a quick search... might start looking here - ThePirateBay was down for me - due to that lawsuit maybe??)



but when we're rebuilding a system and the client doesn't have their orig CDs, its great to put the stick drive in and let the system do its thing

zip! zip! zip!



heheh!

 

[abe]

(did a quick search... might start looking here - ThePirateBay was down for me - due to that lawsuit maybe??)

!

down but not out http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-down‚-but-not-out-090302/

 

[smr1619]

#1 For backups there is a Autobackup under Repair Tools of the week that backs up the following
Shared Documents folder
My Documents folder
User's Windows desktop's content (Files, Shortcuts, Wallpaper when it is possible)
Internet Explorer favorites and start page (only with Windows version)
Internet Explorer cookies (they can only be restored under a Win PE environment)
Outlook Express messages and settings (mail accounts, rules...)
Windows Address book (used by Outlook Express)
Microsoft Office Outlook PST files (messages, address book and calendar are stored in)
Microsoft Office activation files (XP/2003)
Opera cache and bookmarks
Mozilla Firefox cache and bookmarks
Mozilla Thunderbird messages and settings
Lotus Notes user's parameters, databases and ID's (for multi-users clients)
Modem parameters (rasphone.pbk file), except connection logins and passwords
System fonts (useful if you installed fonts unbundled with Windows or your softwares)
Network interface cards TCP/IP parameters (only tested under Windows XP)

#2 I would also use drivermax to export the drivers before you wipe it. You can also use RadarSync2009 that will update the drivers if you can’t back them up
#3 http://www.winaddons.com/ for nLite addons

 

[Comtech Solutions]

Are you comtech_solutions that has
http://comtechsolutions.net/
or
http://www.comtechsolutions.com/
or
http://www.comtechsol.com/

Is comtech solutions your registered business name? I have dealt with a company in the past named ComTech solutions that we did some sub-contract work for, are you them?

No to all of the above. Although I might like those domain names if they ever become free My registered ame is different and I have been in business on my own for 2 years now.

They aren't on your receivables list are they?

As for the name, I guess there were too many C-tech business around when I chose a name!

 

[TEXNET]

Great posts guys, very helpful......thank you