I received a question from Adam, a Terry’s Computer Tips web site visitor recently, who was having problems with two of his computers:

Hey Terry, just read your XP SP3 woes, got another one two for you. i have a small home network running with shared internet connection. When SP3 came out both computers immidiately downloaded the update. on PC1 the same happen to as did to your previous writer with the dvd-rom issue (gave up and bought another) on PC2 my onboard network adaptor, uh, mulfunctioned and my computer no longer registers any outside computers from my network port. i do not want to use system restore point. is there a way of repairing online? SP2 cd does not work

I wrote back to Adam to tell that there is a new online service about which I have been reading, that might be what he was looking for. InformationWeek, NetworkWorld and eWeek had very interesting articles about it. I also advised him that I have not tried it yet.

I interpreted from his description that PC2 can access the Internet but not his other local PC. It would have to access the Internet to access the online service.

ReImage is an online scanning service that is designed to diagnose and repair Windows problems, including replacing damaged system files with files from its repositories.

I suggested that, if he wanted to try it, he check out Reimage.

I also asked him, if he tried ReImage, let me know what he thought of it.

Adam wrote back to say:

Terry,
Tried ReImage and am more or less happy with the results. Am not so happy about the cost situation though. The program is thorough and clearly laid out and does exactly what it says it does, analyze your PC but in order to repair it you need to pay. I am fine with this and paid the amount, but it is not stated that the rather high charge is for a single repair only. not for the license of the product as is most usually the case with software. They apparently charge $60 (for me it was R370) and that bought me 1 use and a piece of now useless software.

Thanks for the advice, the program did help my PC.
Adam

I went and checked the site again. I think that Adam either overlooked or misinterpreted the pricing. The Pricing page clearly states that the online service was priced per repair.

The posted price on their web site at the time was "$65 for 1 complete repair, 7 day money back guarantee." A 3-repair purchase, good for any PC’s any time within a year, was $79. I also noticed that they had PC Technician plans available, and plans for 10 repairs ($139) and unlimited repairs ($149 per month).

Update to 2010

ReImage has changed its pricing structure — it’s now $69.95 for 1 license (1 computer) for 1 year. You can add two more computers for another $30, for a total of $99.95. This ReImage annual license plan is a much better deal.

ReImage uses ActiveX to do its work, but, if the Windows PC won’t boot completely, they also downloadable tools to create a bootable CD to allow the PC to connect to their service.

The only real drawback I saw was that the initial release was for Windows XP only, which omitted a large market of Vista users and soon-to-be Windows 7 users. That shortfall has been addressed; however, ReImage does not support the 64-bit versions of XP, Vista and Windows 7.

They’ve got some great videos on their site to explain their process, as well as explaining what it does and what it doesn’t do.