Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Step1
Know that repair crews at the big box stores are not paid well and may have more motivation to copy personal information. Not that all low-paid workers are thieves, but beware of identity theft and protect yourself by blocking or removing things like passwords and financial information.
Step2
Get references. Call those references. A private repair service that has been in business for a long time will have developed a large client base and a solid reputation for honesty and good work.
Step3
Try online help menus before calling in someone to work on your computer. Very often, you may find answers to your problem without spending anything.
Step4
Ask the computer repair person to come to your home if at all possible. This way, you can monitor the work and watch if he or she goes into any of your personal files. Most repair people move very quickly through directories on your computer and charge by the hour. It can be worth the extra fees for in-home repair if you are nervous about your privacy.
Step5
Back up your most important work on removable hard drives because it is very likely that hardware will have to be replaced. Very few computer repair services spend a lot of time diagnosing a problem. It is often cheaper to replace the faulty piece than to try to fix it. Ask your repair service to let you know how much time they will spend in diagnosing the problem if they are charging you by the hour.
