I will add a couple comments here.
Can anyone tell me if these files contain any personal or private information that a hacker or scammer could use against me? I am reluctant to post a lot of private information on a public forum.
Its a fair question. Even if (and its not) but if any personal data was uploaded to Sysnative, it would never be given, sold, or shared with any 3rd person entity. And it would never be used by anyone here at Sysnative for any reason other than as needed to help resolve your issues. In fact, if someone inadvertently posts personally identifiable data, that post will quickly be edited by a member of the staff to delete that data.
But, to be more specific, if a bad guy managed to hack this site and access the files you uploaded, as Wrench97 noted, there is nothing in them that could personally identify you, compromise your security, or be used against you. So no worries there.
I was hoping that my BSOD issue would only take 2 minutes to fix, but it's now been the better part of 3 days
Well, I am not a certified BSOD expert on this site but I can tell you, fixing these (and other computer) problems can be very frustrating and time consuming. Part of the problem is Windows and/or the hardware often crashes before the cause of the crash can be written to a log. So any potential evidence pointing to the cause never exists or is lost before it can be analyzed.
It can make such repairs very challenging.
Actually, "fixing" the problem is the easy part. Troubleshooting to identify the specific cause of the problem is what often takes the most time
and expertise. This is exactly why many repair shops (and not just computer repair) charge for estimates (though the reputable shops will always apply that estimate fee to the final bill).
I personally avoid repair shops, especially with BSOD issues. Most of them tend to find things which aren't even broken to begin with.
"Most"?
Well, as someone with a repair shop for 20+ years, I have to take exception to that. "Most" shops, at least those of us who have our own independent shops, are decent, honest, hard-working people who only want our customers to have good, safe, and secure service from their systems. We don't don't fix, or charge to fix things that are not broken. We don't snoop in personal folders.
We rely on repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising. We are not the stereotypical "used car salesmen" of the computer repair business.
But of course, there are a few dishonest shop owners out there who give the rest of us a bad name. They don't last long in this town.
*****
If a user is inexperienced in computer repair, custom upgrades or builds, or simply would rather have someone else do it for them (and there's no shame in that!), I would urge them to seek out a local independent shop. Check references. Talk to the shop owner. Don't attempt to do it yourself if you don't know what you are doing. Don't buy components unless you know how to verify compatibility first. And don't take it to your [stereotypical] "brother-in-law". I have probably made a small fortune over the years fixing self-induced problems and undoing "fixes"
done by that untrained "brother-in-law".
