What to do if your PC won’t start?

Over the last couple of months I’ve had quite a few calls from people who’s computers won’t start. The usual cry that accompanies these calls is “I don’t know what to do” and of course at the point when the PC won’t start, that’s not so surprising. But really the time to ‘do something’ is long before this sort of problem occurs.

I believe there are 2 key tasks that everyone with a computer should ensure are covered as a matter of course while the computer is still working well.

The first task is making sure you have a CD with your operating system. This takes one of 3 forms; a genuine Microsoft disc; the PC manufacturers ‘System Recovery’ disc(s); or if no discs came with the PC, creating your own disc(s), usually using a facility on the PC created by the manufacturer. If you don’t have a CD and your computer develops a problem that requires the operating system being re-installed, you will either have to endure the pain of contacting the computer manufacturer and hope they are prepared to provide a CD, or you will have to suffer the expense of buying another disc. XP, Vista or Windows 7 and you won’t see any change from £70 or more. So while you have the chance it’s worthwhile sorting out your operating system disc before you need it and put it in a very safe place!

The second task is having a regular backups strategy for your data. By that I don’t mean using some bundled backup software that come with many PCs, that makes a backup of the system on the same internal disc. If the disc fails you risk loosing both your current data and all of the backups. If you have pictures, files, emails or any sort of information on your computer that would either cause you problems or heartaches if you lost them then now is the time to make that copy. Whether you copy them to CD, DVD, USB memory stick, another PC or an external disc, it doesn’t matter. Just make copies.

What this does mean, when you call me, or anyone else to help you when you PC won’t start, is that the answer to the 2 questions you will no doubt be asked will be yes! Yes, I do have a system disc, and yes, I do have backups of all my data!

Most times a PC that won’t start doesn’t result in a complete system reload. But so far when it has, I’ve only had to tell one customer that I couldn’t recover any of the pictures of their children. On that occasion I was given the very philosophical reply of “Well I’ve still got the kids so I’ll just take more pictures”, but I’d rather not have to do it again so please help yourself and avoid it.

As always if you have questions about this then please just ask.

PS.  Even an Apple PC won’t help you to avoid this one!

Hi beachcomber3,

I knew you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from have another dig at Microsoft but this time all you are doing is diluting the message.

It doen’t matter how great the risk of having a terminal problem with a computer, waiting until it happens is too late to do the things that will minimise the impact the most. Of course the majority of problems with PCs do not require a reload of the operating system and certainly don’t result in total lose of data. Also I think your fear of ‘blue screens’ is far too acute. Most of the problems that I see do not cause blue screens. I haven’t had a blue screen on any of my PCs for years, infact I can’t remember when the last one was, and I do use them quite a lot and probably performing far more risky tasks on them than most people.

A total hardware failure whether on a MAC or a PC running Microsoft, Unix, Linux or any other operating system is still a total failure. It’s just that there are a lot more Microsoft PCs out there to have them.

Anyway here’s a call to everyone that reads this.

Do you know where your system disc(s) are?
Do you make regular backups of your data?

Just answer yes or no to each