Practicum 2 Day 15: Jan 23, 2014

Today was my last day at Bargain Bytes. I had a bit of a different day working with an old script called "DOS". I also learned some other hardware, I had to do some research on some PCI and some PCI-e cards.

I started the day with Vince teaching me how to use "DOS" using a virtual machine through Windows 98. I learned and fiddled around with many different commands. At first I didn't know much on what I was doing but soon I slowly got the hang of how to get in and out of a directory using cd: and cd:.. to close the directory. I figured out how to get into the directory using dir and I looked around in there for a bit, I dove into the Help dir to see what there was if I could go any farther or not. To get out I just typed the command of (cd..).

Early today my instructor also came in to finish up on my assessment for my second practicum. We talked about what I have learned while working here and what I did for my practicum project. I also had to answer some hardware questions to prepare for my CompTIA Exam coming up soon, which I may get it postponed to study for it more.

After my lunch break I came back and fiddled a bit more in "DOS". Then Gino showed me what a Marquee is, which is basically a screensaver for older operating systems which displays any type of text that you want it to say. Vince was going to show me how to write a script using Java to make a Marquee from scratch. However "DOS" is very hard to work with, and Vince couldn't quite remember how to.

Near the end of the day, Vince gave me an old motherboard that I could take home and look at. I can analyze it more to learn more on how a motherboard works and what each part is on it. I also got a copy of DOS 4.01. Who knows what I'll do with that since Vince told me I'm gonna need a hard drive big enough to run it. And finally I got a copy of Lin's Install which is the program script that we use at Bargain Bytes to add any Anti-Virus programs onto it and we also use it to activate some of the programs and to activate Windows 7 using Windows 7 Loader EX. I am sure that my instructor may want to copy, since he did ask me about it before.

But other than that I did have a great time working there since I did learn quite a bit about computers and have improved my knowledge of software. And I really wanted to build a tower and I was finally able to, when working there. And the best part about it is that I sold it just a few mins after finishing it itself. So I felt pretty proud about that!


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 14: Jan 22, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes, we had a pretty busy day. I got to delve into some hardware stuff on my second last day on my practicum. I started my practicum project today of building 1 out 2 computer towers. I also got to replace some hard drives in 2 laptops. Then as usual I had to to some software stuff which was pretty basic to do.

I started off the day finishing up on a laptop that I worked on from yesterday which I checked to make sure everything was up to date and that the last few Windows updates were completed. I then decided to run a few virus scans just to be sure that everything was good. After that I put the laptop aside and wrote "Done" on it.

Next I finally got to delve into some hardware stuff. Vince wanted to get me ready for my build, so he asked me to replace 2 hard drives on 2 separate laptops. I first unscrewed the top paneling and then removed the screws from the cradle that held the hard drive in place. I then put then new hard drive in its place. And then inserted it back into the laptop and then closed it up. I then did the same thing with another laptop but the only thing different was that the cradle was a little bit different.


I then started to prepare for my build, I gathered all the parts that I needed to construct the system. I first placed the CPU into the correct spot made sure that it fit in right. I screwed in the motherboard into the casing. I made sure that it lined up with the certain headers. Next I put the hard drive and the CD-ROM into the correct slots. I got all the wiring connected to the parts, the Hard drive, the motherboard, the CD-ROM. I then closed up the system and made sure that it booted up correctly. I then used a Windows 7 Slipstream to install Windows 7 Home Premium.

After my lunch break I came back and the install finished. I got all the drivers and installed the usual software with a run of Lin's Disk for all the appropriate Anti-Virus programs. Soon later a customer came in looking to buy a system and he picked the one that I built. He was looking to get a new system and was going to use Dial-Up with it. I helped him with it into his car and after I felt pretty proud of myself and that I can't wait to build my next one.












Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 13: Jan 21, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes I got into doing many different things throughout the day. I did things from doing reloads to backups to removing virus's. I also talked to my co-workers on what I will be doing for my practicum project.

I started the day with having to work back on a laptop that I have been experiencing some issues with the keyboard an the trackpad for the last few days. For some reason the trackpad and the keyboard do not work at all so for myself to work on it today, I had to use externals. I started with using Avast and I did a Full Boot Time Scan with it. It did not find anything. Gino told me that the only other way he can think of is to do a reload of Windows 7 Home Premium, but we haven't had any luck with reaching the customer.

Next I worked on doing a backup on a Windows XP Dell machine. I more of analyzed what a co-worker was doing and he asked me to watch him carefully on what he does to do backups when involving pictures. I then later did a reload of Windows XP onto it and to activate it I had to call Microsoft on activating the software. I was not successful in my 2 attempts with dealing with a computer on the other end of the line. Gino did say it is still good experience for me to have done that and that it is hard to do when dealing with the other person on the other end of the line being a computer.

After my lunch break Gino asked me to put back some files onto a customer's laptop. I guess she was having troubles with here desktop and wanted the files put onto her laptop. I also had the time to add a few anti-virus programs onto it before the customer came in to pick it up.

My last task of the day I had to do a checkup on another co-worker's work on weather he installed the correct programs onto it and did everything he had to do in the typical plan of doing a reload. So I noticed that he did not install Microsoft Word and that he did not check for updates so I finished the day with that.


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 12: Jan 18, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes I had lots of stuff to do, I had to do lots of virus scans between 3 different laptops. 1 I was able to finish and the customer came to pick it up the other 2 had lots of virus's on them.

I started the day with having to continue with the 2 laptops that I did scans on from yesterday. One of them took all night to remove some malware that was on it and the other laptop was turned off so I had to reboot and do 2 quick scans, one of Anti-Malware and one of Anti-Spyware. They took quite a while for a quick scan.

After lunch I got another laptop that I had to remove a few virus's from and also had to add Avast onto it since the user was using Norton and asked if we could remove it and install avast for him. So I first started with a run of ComboFix which you only use when you are in Safe Mode. So I did 2 scans of that then booted back into normal mode. I next installed Anti-Malware and Anti-Spyware and did 2 full scans on it. After that I went into Norton's settings to disable it and then I installed Avast, ran a quick scan on it then uninstalled Norton from the computer using CCleaner. I then activated Avast and then did a Full Boot Scan just before the customer came to pick it up.

After that was finished the quick scans finished on the other 2 laptops. One of them had McAffe on it as there Anti-Virus program. I asked Gino if I should remove it and install Avast onto it since it is a much better program. He told me to leave it since it looked like it was a premium version as in the customer paid for that version. So I skipped that step and ran a defrag on it which basically cleans and resorts all of the copied files of files.

The other laptop had AVG on it and they also wanted Avast so I disabled AVG for 15mins to allow me to install and Activate Avast. After that I uninstalled AVG and did a Full Boot Time Scan with Avast. After that I finished the day with doing a quick Defrag on the machine same as the other laptop and I left the store with them running.


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 11: Jan 17, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes I had plenty to do, I worked on 4 computers today 3 of which were laptops that I had to do some virus scans and a few other issues with them. The other was a desktop that I was just updating Avast and preparing it for the user that was going to buy it today. I also had a visit from my instructor in which he assessed me on my mid point of my practicum.

I started the day off with a laptop that had trouble signing in. I had to use safe mode to try to use the system restore so then I can get into Windows without having that issue. That didn't work so Gino gave me this disk that removed the password from the user's account so I could get in and reset it. Next I had to do a bunch of virus scans since I knew it had a virus because of the mouse was moving by itself. I did full scans of Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malwarebyte. I also did a scan of Eset, which is an online scan.

After lunch I worked on the desktop, preparing it for the customer before she came. I then moved onto working on the other 2 HP laptops that had some virus's on them so I had to install Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malwarebyte onto them and then I did some full scans of each one on them.

Theses scans took the rest of the day up since some of them took over 2 hours to scan. Tomorrow I will install Avast onto them and CCleaner onto them if needed.

I also got a few ideas from my instructor on what I might do for my practicum project at Bargain Bytes.


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 10: Jan 16, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes was a very slow day with not much for myself to do since yesterday I was at Riverside for the First Aid course I missed yesterday. Gino told me that they got a lot of work done yesterday which they were able to catch up on the work load. So that put me in a bad spot for today.

Today I started with finishing up a reload that Gino did on a brand new desktop. I updated Avast to the most recent version and I looked to see if Microsoft Word was installed or not. I then looked to see if there were any Windows updates which there were so I installed them. Next I did a restart to complete the updates and then it was good for sale.

After lunch I didn't have much to do other than a reload for another brand new custom built desktop that I had to monitor. Other than that the day was pretty slow.


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F

Practicum 2 Day 9: Jan 14, 2014

Today at Bargain Bytes I got to do some very boring virus scans on a desktop computer using some programs that I am familiar and not familiar with. I also got to do one Windows 7 Reload on a pink Sony Vaio laptop.

The day started off right away with me getting to work on a desktop computer that had quite a bit of viruses on it. I used this one program called Combo Fix which basically cleans up some of the viruses on the system. I found a few weird programs that were installed, not sure if the user wanted them on there or not or if they were installed from a virus or something. I next did a system clean up of the registry using CCleaner. I ran a scan 2 times to make sure that I got every issues fixed. Next I started to do some Anti-Virus scans using Super Anti-Spyware, Malwarebyte Anti-Malware, An online scanner called Eset and Spybot Search and Destroy. I also learned that you can run more than one scanner at a time to save time since it would take a long time if I was to do each scan one at a time. It took quite a while to finish up.

After lunch I had to do a system backup with the help of Vince, since the backup involved about 146GB of stuff to transfer over; we had to be sure that we went over everything. It took a good hour to transfer everything over to the external drive. Near the end of the day I had to "Start" a reload for Vince, since he had something else he was working on, I finished up the reload. But he did finish up everything else including Lin's Disk and installing the drivers. Wanting to finish it quickly so he wanted to do most of it himself.

I will be back in on Thursday, since tomorrow (January 15th) I will be taking part in the First Aid course.


Thanks for taking the time to read this,


Sincerely,


Brandon.F