Support Strategies Paper

Support Strategies Paper

Enterprise Computer Support / CIS284

January 6, 2011

Michael Sterner

Abstract

This paper puts the writer in the position of the support technician. It is a comparison between on-site and off-site computer support scenarios that address issues such as; Support software, required hardware, Cost of support, Process differences, Skills required, and the service method and any specific tools that would be utilized during the support methodology. There are two scenarios that will be discussed in this paper.

Support Strategies Paper

Scenario 1: Steve recently purchased a new computer from the local electronics outlet. When presented with antivirus software, he respectfully declined the offer. Three months after buying his new computer, Steve’s monitor froze and will not restart without unplugging the machine. He tells you that all of his family photos have been saved on the hard drive and it is imperative they be retrieved.

The first thing I would tell Steve is that the hard drive has the most common failure rate of any component in the computer and it always fails at the most inopportune time. Fortunately, there are ways to try to retrieve this data. Hopefully this will put him at ease and let him know that there is hope. I will also ensure he knows that it may take some time and it is not a guarantee that the data will be recovered, but in most cases the data can be recovered. I would ask him what happened just prior to the system crash. Since there isn’t any virus protection installed, I would assume that it was caused from a corruption of the file system.

The first thing we would do is to schedule a pickup of the computer or have the customer drop it off. And explain to him that this is the most effect way that we can affect the repairs needed. When we had the computer, we would try data recovery software. There are a number of software packages available that have success at recovering...