Aaaarrrggghhhhh !!!

Last week, the local power company decided to install squirrel protection on the overhead lines.

They had previously advised that this would be happening, with a power outage anywhere between 8am - 5pm sometime between Monday and Friday.

So... Tuesday went off to work as usual - ever had one of those days you knew was not gonna go you way ? Yep it was one of them.

On getting home from work, noticed the PC screen was blank. Traci told me the power was out for about 20 mins ... So I switched on my PC. Nothing ... Trie again ... still nothing. Checked the power cord was plugged in both ends (well you never know) ..
.. nadda..

Disconnected the PC, dragged it out from under the desk. Tried a different outlet ... By this time guessed that it wasn't anywhere between the outlet and the power cord that was the problem.

Well, I know a little about PCs having worked in an IT dept. for 12 years so took a look inside ... nothing evident.

Tried to swap power supplies with another computer but didnt have all the right connections. Phoned a PC guy I had dealt with previously, he came out later with another power supply, changed it out and .... nothing.

So my PC was doing a pretty good impression of a door stop. luckily the PC guy refurbishes PCs so I chose to replace the door stop with a refurbished HP Tower that would be dropped off the next day.

The old PC was hauled away (minus the hard disk) with the possibility of having the motherboard replaced.

Now, I knew I had to get the hard disk up and running and as Traci, has a PC as does my stepson Matt, checked I could read the data. So installed the disk in Matt's PC as a second drive and booted up ... and there was my disk able to be read ... woooohoooooooooo !

So all the docs and pics and web stuff and personal stuff was under 'my documents' ... tried to access the folders ... access denied ... seems that my idea of password protecting my account on my PC was my downfall.

So, lets try booting from my disk... great idea ! Windows starts ... enters my password and ... gets an error message that Windows need to be authorised. Toll free number is shown. Calls the number - follows the automated instructions and authorization failed. Passed onto a live support person, explains the problem that my old PC is dead and have installed the disk in another PC to get my data back.
techie (??): "was the version of windows preinstalled on a PC?"
Me: "yes"
Techie: "Is the drive in the original PC?"
Me: "No, I explained the problem that my old PC died and I need to get access to my data"
Techie: "Sorry, the windows software is only licenced for the original PC and can't be authorised"

After a brief message about calling tech support (at this point realised that I had contacted a call centre that did little but ask stock questions) the guy ended the conversation and the call.

Called tech support and followed many of the paths to reach my goal, only end at pretty much the same solution each time either call and take out a support contract or Microsoft was unable to help with my problem (was my problem so big even Microsoft couldn't help?!)

Now I am pretty much persistant and so went back to trying to reboot again, same error needs authorisation. If you ever get to see this, you are presented with a authorization number sequence of 8 set of 6 digits, which when you call the authorization number you read back to the automate attendant, which hopefully will get you a sequence of 8 sets of 5 digits to authorize windows, and which failed last time. SO I tried again ... read back the 8 sets of 6 digits ... and ...
the automated attendant accepted and proceeded with the authorisation code. Finally got the PC booted with my disk and then proceeded to pull all the data off the old disk. Which was installed to my new/refurbished HP and after about 4 days (well, 4 evenings to be exact) I am now where I was last Tuesday.

The story doesn't quite end there because I still have some data to recover from the disk and need to do the boot from disk on Matt's PC again, and I hope that this time it remembers that windows IS authorised.

As for the old PC? A new mother board would set me back $175-$250 ... not an option
A secondhand motherboard would be less... but it's trying to get one ...
BUT, my PC guy knows a bit more about PCs than I do and has found some of the capacitors have blown. So he is gonna try a repair job on the old motherboard.

I guess there is a lesson to be learned by all that read this and by the author too ... PCs are vulnerable, so make sure that your data is backed up.

Here endeth the lesson ... but not the story