When you are first starting out  learning about computer hardware repair it can be little overwhelming. You might be flipping through your CompTIA A+ flashcards learning about the names of all the computer parts and their functions and you start to get curious about what it will be like interacting with computer hardware when you finally land a Help Desk or Desktop Technician role. I’ll help put all the pieces together for you and I’ll tell you the two most common computer parts you will work on will working in IT, how to gain computer repair skills and why hands on skills are so important. Let’s boot up!

HDDs & SSDs

While working in IT usually in the Help Desk and Desktop Technician roles you will most likely be interacting with Hard Disk Drives (HDD) and Solid State Drives (SSD) on almost a regular basis. HDDs and SSDs are where data is stored. In IT is common for a user’s hard drive to fail, to reach capacity or to be upgraded from a HDD to a SSD. In all these cases you will need to know how to backup and physically remove the old drive, install the new drive with an operating system and transfer over the backup files from the old drive.

RAM

At the Help Desk and in other related IT support roles you will also work with RAM regularly. Random Access Memory (RAM) is another form of data storage. With RAM you will mostly be replacing RAM sticks that fail or adding in more RAM into a computer to help improve a its performance. You will want to know how to install and uninstall RAM. It’s also important to be familiar with the different types of RAM. Not all RAM sticks will fit into every computer’s RAM slots.

Where can you learn computer hardware skills?

I really believe in self teaching, that’s how I learned most of my computer hardware skills! Get an old computer from your basement, a friend, online, wherever and practice on that. Grab some screw drivers and work on carefully taking a part the computer. You can also look on Youtube, Linkedin Learning and iFixit.com for tutorials to follow.  If you prefer to learn computer repair skills in person with a teacher do a Google search for computer hardware or CompTIA A+ classes in your area. Also, if you know someone who works in IT ask them to spare a few hours with you to show you the basics of computer repair especially drive and RAM installs/uninstalls.

Why is it important to have hands on computer repair skills?

At the Help Desk/IT Support level you will most likely need to know how to do basic computer repairs such as drive and RAM installs/uninstalls. It’s important to make sure that you have this skill set so that you can complete these tasks on the job! Also if you are interviewing for an entry level role that maybe only phone or email support it can be very impressive to the interviewer if you have hardware skills. You maybe seen as more valuable and it may just get your foot in the door.

TO HEAR MORE, LISTEN TO MY PRETTY TECH SAVVY PODCAST EPISODE #4: TWO COMPUTER PARTS YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO UPGRADE

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