Discussion on:

Annoucing DIY IT Guy: IT on a shoestring budget

Even though I don't work in a mom/pop shop, it's always nice to have workarounds or alternatives to various software that decides to be too expensive or limited functionality. One of the best things about TR imo is the mindmelding from different backgrounds and finding out what REALLY works beyond the advertising hype.

As the sole SysAdmin for a small, woman-owned NASA contractor, this sort of thing is my bread & butter. I'm looking forward to reading and sharing the tales of the trenches...

Some problems are just tough to resolve.
This blog'll make a good read.

I was thinking of creating my own blog dedicated to free, open source or base level software that is highly capable of solving lots of business problems. It is inspired by reading of Mr. Wallen's accounts form Linux, and also by my own experience. I look forward to the discussion this blog, and my own perhaps, brings to those of us doing IT work in smaller companies with little, or no, budget at all.

I work in a small IT shop for a non-profit, and do a little bit of everything! Wouldn't mind sharing some of my experiences and solutions with you.

I'm looking forward to this blog as I service a lot of small shops and I will hopefully be able to contribute some of my experiences.

Since I took early retirement and started my own personal financial consulting business, I find myself responsible for everything including AV software, software fixes, hardware upgrades, backups and the list goes on.

i have an idd hard drive, with little space left to store my data , i am think of using a sata hd as the slave, my mb has sata , and idd.will this work, as my os is on the old hard.drive

Yes is the simple answer. You may have to go into the BIOS setup to change the boot drive order.

Install the hard disk
boot to BIOS
make sure the system recognises the SATA drive and still boots to the IDE drive
Reboot, allowing the system to come up fully
Format the new drive. Under Linux you will have to mount it first.
Once formatted, move all the surplus data to the SATA drive

If your current hard drive is more than four years old, it may also be a great time to replace the original drive all-together. Look for a retail package that includes transfer software to ease the move. Additionally, the retail package will likely include a SATA cable and power cable adapter, which you may need if your computer is older.
One catch to using a SATA drive may be the drives backward compatibility. I've run into issues within the last year, and had to find a drive that could be jumpered to SATA-150 mode.

As the IT Guy in a full volunteer international school, I am looking forward to this blog.

Now retired but having spent all my working life with computers I help home users and local voluntary organisations. This will be useful for other like me. I will also be able to contribute as well, I hope.

Count me in! it's always good to know a place where I can share and learn at the same time.

I provide IT services to a small catholic school and am always bumping up against the "buy" or "DIY" thing myself. Although we've been pretty successful in keeping costs down to date I can't wait to see your posts for additional ideas.

Thanks for this blog, Mark

We run an IT shop in a economically disadvantaged area. Our little black book is full of ideas, and I'm sure we can all heterodyne and learn from one another!

and almost all of my business clients are completely computer illiterate. At least they listen to my harrowing tales and modify their online, and maintenance behaviors to avoid calamity in the first place.

Fixing or upgrading usually means buying junk at garage sale prices and slapping on some cheap components to bring it up to snuff. Things are still going swimmingly so far. Why fix an old PIII when you can find PIVs in the recycle, or donation piles? Works for my clients. I try to teach them just enough to get independent. No reason for me to work my butt off for peanuts. It is smarter to get volume business, by offering cheap service. Most of my work is over Log-me-in, and I never leave my office! I'm close to offering monthly service for folks who just can't seem to understand maintenance requirements. It is easy to do it for them, doesn't require a lot of expensive service fees, and I can make a buck if I do things very efficiently.

That's awesome. The power of Storytelling working for information security!
You're part of a tradition that is, without a doubt, over a hundred thousand years old!

There are so many areas where this applies - not just the mom and pop, but the non profit office, private schools and service clubs..
One topic that would be good is to make these people aware of the tasks that should be considered (hopefully without overwhelming them). For example some people don't think about backups or what needs to be backed up.
One resource that would be great is Spiceworks - it is a great tool (and free) for many IT tasks.
Looking forward to the conversations.

I thought I was the only one who approached things this way. Being the owner of a small PC repair shop that caters to mostly home users and a few small businesses, I often have to solve clients problems without increasing costs to them. I'll be looking forward to reading this blog to learn more.

Hi everyone , I think this is a great opertunity for everone that participates. There are a lot of us who run small business networks and we are all somewhat successful most of the time. But helping each other in this blog will make a great difference

I'm the controller/bookkeeper/sys admin for a mom & pop business (literally, I'm "mom"). This sounds like it will address the issues we have with trying to figure out the best way to host a website, set up a VPN with our partner in another location, and deal with employee(s) in the field. Looking forward to these posts (and the comments)!

I am the Accidental Teckie for a small, not for profit, library organization. We have 6 employees and a 22 unit training lab, plus 3 websites - I would be lost without the input I glean from sites like this. What I like about this idea is that DIY indicates it will be "dumbed down" enough for me to have the confidence I need to apply the solutions I find! Thanks!