Can anyone personally recommend a computer shop in downtown Madrid? I'm not interested in the Fix-It shops at Media Markt or PC City. I want a "Mom & Pop" store which works on PCs as their primary business. It'd be nice if the same place would sell computer parts.

Recently, I had an external hard drive failure - containing all my work files. Luckily, I have a back-up copy but from 3 months ago. I also have reason to believe (or to pray) that it may be the Primary Circuit Board (PCB) which has failed and not the hard drive itself so I'm hoping to "simply" change out the PCB and hope the drive will then work.

If all else fails, I guess I could order the PCB online but that could take weeks for delivery and would like to get this repaired ASAP.

Thanks for any suggestions from personal experience.

Saludos, MadridMan

Dont know any off hand but can ask my family there if you have not found one by now.Let me know.

Thanks to Antonio for the message about http://www.efecto2000.com/ here in Madrid. They have several shops for purchases but have recently moved their technical assistance location to someplace in the middle of nowhere!! The closest metro is probably 20 minutes walk away. Well, I'll give it a try. Thanks, everyone!

Thanks, Antonio!

Saludos, MadridMan

So, yeah, I went to Efecto2000 in a not-so-good part of Madrid and, sure enough, about a 20 minute walk from the nearly metro station (Portazgo). In fact, I had such difficulty finding the place that I was happy to have my PDA's GPS to help me - and it did. But then once I was there the disinterested clerk shook his head and said he really didn't think there's much I could do except maybe try to slip the hard drive into a laptop (which is actually a good idea and I'll try!) or "call this number" for data recovery (that's an expensive option which I won't try).

Next, I'll try buying a simple, basic "external hard drive enclosure" and see if that works. Should've bought one while I was there yesterday but, at the time, seemed there was no possibility.

So, in short, I won't be going back to this particular technical assistance shop. Took about 2 hours total transportation/walking time and was only there for maybe 3 minutes. Yeah, I could've called but wanted the guy(s) to actually see the unit, hoping for some bright ideas. He didn't seem to think buying a new "enclosure" would help either but maybe that was the salesman in him talking. (which would be strange for a technical guy)

Saludos, MadridMan

Hi MadridMan: A suggestion would be to google in Spanish and English "Computer Repair Shops in Madrid, Spain". I know you wanted a personal recommendation but you may have to be the one who gives us a recommendation after you find a computer repair shop in Madrid that helped correct your computer problem. Good luck

Saludos

Thanks, all! Let me give "a shout out" to my neighborhood computer parts shop, SiXtiber Mr. Micro, right here on the Paseo de Extremadura (1 block from metro: Puerta del Ángel). They've been there as long as I've been coming to (this neighborhood - back in 1995) but I've not visited them in years - until now.

They're a small shop, you walk in and there's only one room, about the size of a small living room, walls and front display windows have items under glass for sale. It's the kind of typical place (for Spain) where you walk in and up to the counter, tell them what you want, and they go into the back to get it for you, take it out of the box to show it to you, maybe plug it in for you to prove it works, and then see if you'd like to buy it. I've seen this kind of customer treatment in a number of shops in Madrid, particularly electronics and lighting shops.

So yesterday I took in my external hard drive at approximately 5:30pm. The tech-guy came out, I told him my issue, he took the hard drive and told me to come back in half an hour while he tested it.

So I went back 30 minutes later and there it was, ready to go. Now that's service! Sure, the hard drive was fried and no longer usable, but the technician tested it in various "receptacles" and it didn't work in any of them. One dead hard drive. And they refused to charge me for the service.

THIS is the kind of place I was looking for - and one was right under my nose the whole time. And to think I metro'd allllll the way across town for the "Eh! I wouldn't waste your time so why are you wasting mine?" treatment.

I'm tempted to open up the hard drive myself to see if the needle is stuck or something - or maybe I'll take it back to SiXtiber Mr. Micro just to check if they offer this service too.

Saludos, MadridMan

you never know what you have around until you go around ::)

You've got that right, pedmar. Now I know where I'll go the next time - and hopefully there won't be a next time - I have a problem. But at least I'm comfortable with them, trust them, and feel they won't take advantage of me.

Saludos, MadridMan