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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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disposed of in the right way. Safely disposing of hardware containing

hazardous materials, such as computer monitors, protects both people and the

environment.

Anyone who’s ever tried to sell a computer more than three or four years

old learns a hard lesson: they’re not worth much, if anything at all. It’s a real

temptation to take that old computer and just toss it in the garbage, but never

do that!

First of all, many parts of your computer—such as your computer monitor

—contain hazardous materials that pollute the environment. Luckily,

thousands of companies now specialize in computer recycling and will gladly

accept your old computer. If you have enough computers, they might even

pick them up. If you can’t find a recycler, call your local municipality’s waste

authority to see where to drop off your system.

An even better alternative for your old computer is donation. Many

organizations actively look for old computers to refurbish and to donate to

schools and other organizations. Just keep in mind that the computer can be

too old—not even a school wants a computer more than five or six years old.

No Installation Is Perfect

Even when the installation seems smooth, issues may slowly surface,

especially in the case of upgrades. Be prepared to reinstall applications or

deal with new functions that were absent in the previous OS. If things really

fall apart, you can go back to the previous OS. Or, if you have an OEM

computer (one built by, for example, Dell or HP instead of by you), your

computer likely came with a special recovery partition on its hard drive, a

recovery disc, or a recovery USB flash drive; you can use any of these to

restore your operating system to its factory settings. You usually invoke a

system recovery by pressing a certain key during boot-up—usually f10 or f11

—and then following a set of prompts.

The procedures I’ve laid out in this chapter may seem like a lot of work—

how bad could it be to grab installation media, fling a copy of Windows onto

a system, and, as the saying goes, let the chips fall where they may? Plenty

bad, is how bad. Not only is understanding these procedures important for the

CompTIA A+ certification exams, but these procedures can also save your,

ah, hide once you’re a working PC tech and tasked to install the latest version

of Windows 10 on the boss’s new computer!

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