Get Ready for Rebuilds

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System rebuilds come in many forms, and their inherent idiosyncrasies can have a system builder playing as many different roles. One day you might be Dr. Frankenstein, transplanting parts and data from a dead system to a new, living host. Another day, you're ToolMan Tom, boosting everything that has a cycle until you're on the verge of creating new forms of energy. On yet another, you're carrying out the Mission From Mod, building in the "custom" for the customer's passions.

Whatever your rebuild mission might be, users want you to replicate their old system's look and feel. Surprisingly, that's where the opportunity to enhance your bottom line comes in.

In fact, working with a customer to discover how they want their system rebuilt is a great opportunity to build, or enhance, your relationship. For instance, an agreed-upon price from a pre-standardized price list will help the customer understand and appreciate, ahead of time, what you'll be doing for them. That's a service most system builders don't offer.

Also, your customer will have opportunities to tack on extra purchases—from you, of course! These might include the external USB hard drive that held the cleaned-up data from the customer's current drive during the transition. Or a hardware firewall that could have spared them the attack that brought down their system in the first place. A system rebuild is a great opportunity for building your relationship and increasing your bottom line.

Ingredients

Whether you're building to a new machine or simply a new OS, work closely with the customer to call in the materials from the old/current environment. These will include hardware, software and stored data. It's best to begin with the components in the complete, current hardware system:

• PC.

• Monitor.

• Pointing device and info on its port and settings.

• External data drives, for temporary transfers of system data.

• Modems: Both wired and Wi-Fi, along with information on their ports and settings.

• Information about the Internet connection, whether cable or DSL.

After that, move on to the software, which will include:

• Operating System disks, whether off-the shelf, OEM CDs, or a backup on the hard drive.

• Other disks from manufacturers: card drivers, utilities for audio, modem, NIC/domain name etc.

• Program disks: Both those currently installed and those where there is a chance they will be used in the future.

• Customer data: Whether stored on- or off-site.

Finally, on the system builder's end, here's what's required:

• A pristine external data drive: This will be used to transfer data from the current system, and to possibly house it later. Though there are many choices, I've had success with SimpleTech's external SimpleDrive Portable, a solid deal for about $120. It comes in sizes from 120 GB to 400 GB, and it connects to systems via USB 2.0 or FireWire (or both). This drive works with systems running on Windows XP, 2000, NT, and ME, as well as on Mac OS9 and OSX. It also works with Win98SE, but you'll have to install an included driver.

• Large workbench.

• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) protection for all equipment.

• Security and sanitation kit: anti-virus, worm, keylogger, etc.

• A price list of the services you can provide: These could include duplicating a familiar desktop view and sounds, and wiring important files to backup batches in the Start Menu.