Tell me about a time you had to diagnose and resolve a difficult technical issue. What steps did you take?

Situation

As an IT intern at a mid-sized local company, a panicked user approached me with a laptop that would not boot, just hours before a major client presentation. The device was their only work machine and contained essential files.

Task

I needed to get the laptop operational as quickly as possible while ensuring no data was lost, all without having immediate senior support available on site.

Action

I booted from a Windows USB installer, entered the Recovery Environment, and ran chkdsk /f on the system drive. When that didn't fix it, I suspected a corrupted Master Boot Record and used bootrec /fixmbr and /rebuildbcd. The drive still behaved erratically, so I connected it via a SATA-to-USB adapter to another PC, backed up all critical data, then confirmed the hard drive was failing using CrystalDiskInfo. I replaced it with a spare SSD, restored the data, and reinstalled the OS.

Result

The laptop booted successfully, all files were intact, and the user made the presentation on time. The company later adopted my documentation of the procedure for future IT interns.