Computer Repair

A few years ago I worked as in Global Knowledge, an IT training company. I was a training center manager, I took care of the facility while the teachers came in and taught a class for a week then left. I had some classes that had computers in them and I was responsible for maintaining them and making changing their "image". I was required to get an A+ certification which means I can fix the hardware of a computer, and some software. Over the years I have had many computers, desktop and laptops. A few times there were problems. Sometimes the problems were with the hardware, but often with the software. The computer I am using right now, my main one, has a problem that when I turn it on it sometimes doesn't work. The power goes on, the lights flash, the disk drive makes noise, but there is no light on the monitor. I have found if I leave it on for a while, then turn it off, it will turn on and there will be no problems.

My daughter's computer wasn't working, for the past month, so she gave it to me. She wanted me to keep her information, but fix the computer. I know how to wipe out the computer, press F8 as I turn on the computer, but she wanted her information off the drive before I erased everything and started over. I took out the hard drive and put it in an enclosure, which cost me less then $10 and put everything that was on the drive onto my computer and then erased everything Jayne's computer and then put her stuff back on it. I think when she gets it back she will not see any difference than when it worked before. How did I know how to do this? Did I get trained how to keep the information? I just figured this out. I knew what an enclosure was because I used it a few years ago when I had an extra hard drive. I knew how to reformat the computer because I had to do it to another computer a few years ago. I like figuring things out. I'm sure there is an easier way to do what I did, but it is fun that I could do it myself.