If you want to learn how to image computers, I’d go with Clonezilla, or, if you have a FOG server… use that. Or, you know, if you want to set one up. But that might be a little advanced for a new tech person.
The best advice I can give you is that 40% of IT is following directions well / reading manuals, 40% is dependent upon your “Google Fu” and 20% is listening to your users and using that information wisely.
And ALWAYS dig deeper when troubleshooting. Here’s a conversation that I had yesterday over the phone:
User: “Hey Joe, our computer at the help desk is crashing”.
Me: “Ok, what were you doing when it happened?”
User: “Nothing, the screen just went black and it won’t come back up!”
Me: “Is the power light still on on the computer tower?”
User: “Yes, but the screen is black and we can’t get anything to come up.”
Me: “I know this is a dumb question, but is the monitor turned on? Do you at least see an amber light where the power button for the monitor is?”
User: " Yes, there is an amber light there."
Me: “OK. Can you check to make sure the power cord and the VGA connector are both plugged in securely? The VGA connector is the blue one plugged into the back of the monitor beside the power cord.”
User: “They’re both plugged in as tight as they will go.”
So I went out to check out this computer. The problem was that the computer had sat idle for half an hour, and after a half hour of idle time, the power settings put it into hibernation. It was dumping all the RAM memory onto the hard drive, and when they were trying to bring it up, it was still in the process of unloading the RAM and, since they immediately were trying to wake it up, reloading that data back into the RAM. These are old computers. It was taking a while.
Another good example, different user, told me that a computer kept “crashing over and over again”. Within about 30 seconds I determined that the computer was not crashing - one application was.
