Price to install hard disk.

[Meredyth]

Is $335 a fair price for a computer tech to install a new hard drive? My computer tech is very nice and seems to know what he's doing but I don't know if he's expensive or not. He charges $110 per hour or part thereof to visit or for labour. I live in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

 

[DSzymborski]

Is he simply installing it or taking care of Windows and getting your programs installed? If the former, highway robbery for a 10 minute job, if the latter, that's an awful lot to pay for a task that's about as complex as making toast.

 

[SchizTech]

SO I see $335 AUD is roughly $250 USD at present. If the installation includes Windows it's a damn high price but not completely outrageous but otherwise walk out. Are there other techs in the area, even a friend with tech skills (not a huge amount is required for this job)

 

[Martell1977]

I charge my clients $75 USD to reinstall Windows(flat rate, regardless how long it takes to get it installed and updated), and $50 an hour for repairs and program installation/troubleshooting. My general service call is $50 and it covers arrival and the 1st hour.

I used to charge more, but I needed more than 2 clients and I had to adjust my pricing to what the market would allow. I know a local shop that charged $125 an hour...they were in business about 4 months.

 

[Meredyth]

Is he simply installing it or taking care of Windows and getting your programs installed? If the former, highway robbery for a 10 minute job, if the latter, that's an awful lot to pay for a task that's about as complex as making toast.

 

[Meredyth]

It is already done. I asked him to check the fan because it was making a noise. He improved the noise a bit with some WD40 but he also did a diagnostic on my computer & found there was a fault in the hard drive. He replaced it & transferred my data to the new hard drive.

 

[Meredyth]

I already had Windows 10. He didn't install anything else. I gather you're from USA. Even though you know the difference between the worth of the 2 currencies, do you know what people in Australia pay for these services? It might be much more than you pay.

 

[DSzymborski]

He used WD40 on a PC fan rather than replacing it? I would not use this tech again.

 

[Martell1977]

I already had Windows 10. He didn't install anything else. I gather you're from USA. Even though you know the difference between the worth of the 2 currencies, do you know what people in Australia pay for these services? It might be much more than you pay.

I am in the USA, and prices can vary not only from country to country but city to city. That is what I was implying, the going rate for such services depend on what the market will allow.

I agree with the other poster though, WD40 on a fan is not a good idea, should have replaced it, it will begin making noise again and he was basically setting you up for a future service call. Planned failure you might call it.

 

[Meredyth]

He used WD40 on a PC fan rather than replacing it? I would not use this tech again.

 

[Meredyth]

Apparently, new units like mine with the noisy fan, now have something else to cool them instead of fans & there's no room for such a unit in my computer tower without putting it in a whole new, bigger tower. He was just trying to save me money, while it's still working. I will be replacing it when I have the money to do it.

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

A cheap case fan is like, $5-10 US. An expensive magnetic levitation fan with noise suppression and blinged out with LED's is like, $25-30 US. 12 minutes of that tech's time to take a case apart and spritz some WD-40 is 22 AUD.

And if he's in the habit of spraying WD-40 anywhere near CPU/GPU cooling fans, his shop would be a pile of ashes.