WE CARE ABOUT THE THINGS THAT MATTER.
Not about the things that don’t.
JUST LIKE YOU.
On January 6th 2021, the world suddenly became a harder place for parents of primary school age children.
We have put together a group of wonderful people to help get free laptops to primary schools.
Help us in any way you can.
If not, you can help in so many other ways!
Thank you!
A very very special thank you to all those wonderful people who have allowed us to deliver 21 laptops to local primary schools in the first week.
As Tara’s ex-boyfriend, Inspector Gadget would say: “WOWSERS“
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
Represent a school in need of Chromebooks? Click here.
Wedding Car Experiences for charity.
This isn’t one of those. What’s Tara doing and why?
An individual in Helpston, having worked in technology for over 30 years, reacted quickly to the immediate need and sent a Facebook message out to people in Helpston on January 7th asking for old laptops. Tara told us “Dad was convinced that people had an old laptop or two in their cupboard, garage or under their beds. The ones that are so infuriatingly slow that we can’t use them but feel guilty throwing them away.”
In just 3 days, dad received 9 from the village and 4 from the immediate locality. So far he has supplied over 20 to local schools in Helpston and surrounding villages. Tara says “I was blown away by how kind people were and how many calls dad got asking me to collect laptops from them. People are incredibly kind when you ask.”
Since then Tara has managed to solicit the support of companies, pubs, post offices, local organisations and many, many, individuals across the area. Although she has now managed to deliver the full quantity of computers needed by 2 local schools, she (never a girl to do things in low amounts) is extending his ambition and has approached schools in Barnack and Glinton as well.
Tara wants to toot as loudly as she can and make sure that people and local companies are aware of what she is doing and encourage them to hunt out their old laptops and get them to her dad so that he can help more young children.
She also said that the following bit is dead boring to read but her dad made her put it in.
….
Although dad has the tools to install the new software on old laptops, he does need the laptops to be 64-bit Windows machines that will successfully boot and have a working power supply. No battery is needed.
Her dad explained (rather badly in Tara’s view) that “The key requirement is for the laptops to be less than 10 years old. Anything before that would probably not be capable of conversion.”
….
When we asked Tara about the security of the data on a person’s hard drive, she told us that the process of installing the Google operating system on the computer’s disk drive needed all the windows data to be overwritten irretrievably. She said “This is a one way ticket. As soon as dad starts the installation, all the data will be destroyed for good. So please make sure that you have taken everything you need from the drive. There is no going back. I won’t be able to get the data back. Even for my besties.”
In addition to laptops, Tara is looking for help in setting up Covid-safe ‘collection’ addresses across the nearby villages where people can drop their laptops off and she can bumble of to and collect.
In normal times, Tara’s business is to provide a Wedding Car Experience to happy couples through weddingtuktuk.com, however his business has been struggling without any government help during 2020. He tells us that couples are already moving weddings from 2021 to 2022 which is making it very difficult for him. The bright side is that dad can use his beloved Tara the Tuk Tuk (that’s me) to deliver the laptops to kids and get a huge beaming smile in return.
If it’s under 10 years old, I can probably convert it into a Chromebook suitable for a local primary school child in desperate need for one.
All I have to ask is that it will power on and that you have a power supply.
Time is the issue here. We need to use our old laptops to ensure the continuing education of our young children. Every day makes a difference to their life chances.
Please fill in the form at the bottom of this page if you have one and we will be in contact to see how we can get it collected, converted and donated to a needy child at home.
So, I am hoping that we can arrange for local community delivery and collection points where laptops can be collected from and delivered back to. Tara could then make very efficient runs to collect and, if they are not being donated to schools, return laptops.
Time is the issue here. We need to use our old laptops to ensure the continuing education of our young children. Every day makes a difference to their life chances.
So, if you are a post office, local business that is open or an individual who could help, please fill in the form at the bottom of this page with your offer of help and we will be in contact to see how we can work with your kind offer.
After the necessary faffing around to get in the windows laptop ‘BIOS’ screen, the conversion takes about 30 minutes and I have now managed to get a production line going where I do 6 at a time on my dining table.
However, as the volume of laptops ramp up, there is always a need for other to help doing this. I would be grateful for the help and you would get to see Tara regularly to guarantee a smile!
If you have a little technical knowledge and can help, please fill in the form at the bottom of this page and I will be in contact to see how we can work together.
Minimum Specifications;
- Windows laptop under 10 years old.
- The power supply.
- The PC needs to be able to start up.
- Has to have a USB port
- Windows PC
- Chromebook
- iPad
- Android Tablet
Simply, for Windows 10, do this;
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Boot into Windows 10
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Go to Settings
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Go to Update & Security
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Select Recovery
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Click Get Started under Reset this PC
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When asked if you want to keep your files or delete everything. Select Remove Everything
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Click Next
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Click Reset.
That will do it.
- Call me on 07770 833999 to arrange for local collection or for a chat
- Email prem@weddingtuktuk.com with any questions
- Drop your old PCs over to my house : 10 Heath Road, Helpston PE67EG
15 Jan 2021 Stamford Mercury
18 Jan 2021 Metro Newspapers
Read the full article here
