About three months ago, I did what I do every night. I sat at my desk at did some stuff on my computer. As the hours ticked on and my eyes became heavier, I decided to call it a night and – leaving my computer on because I was downloading some movies – went to bed to get ready for another day.

The next morning, I awoke to find my computer off. Assuming Julie turned it off overnight to conserve electricity, I pushed the button to power it up – nothing. I tried again, and again, and again – still nothing. At one point, it powered up for a split second and I saw the E-Machines opening screen – and then it powered down a second later. Now furious, I woke Julie up at 5:30 in the morning to ask her if she had shut down my machine – to which she said she did not. For close to an hour I tried to revive my computer like a doctor would try and restart a human heart – all to no avail. With no other options before me – my computer’s time of death was pronounced at 6:45 that morning.

Since that time, I have not had my computer for the ump-teenth time in my life. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a computer break down, crap out – or simply be destroyed by me. If I added up the amount of time that I have been computer-less in my adult lifetime – I could probably count a full year. But, thanks to some kind hearted people – some agonizing patience – and a miracle worker in my friend David – my computer has once again risen from the ashes of nothingness.

After explaining what had happened to my friend David, he said that I probably needed a new power supply. So one day after work, he and I went to the store to get one for $20. Upon installing it – we realized that the power supply was not the problem – so he went back to the drawing board – and I went back to having to use Julie’s computer and wondering if my files survived my computer’s cardiac arrest. To make matters worse, I took the power supply back to work to return it the next day – only to have the cleaning staff throw it away when I was in a meeting. Nice.

Plan B of “Operation Fix Paul’s Computer Yet Again” was for me to purchase a new motherboard and processor, which I did. As my luck would have it – the motherboard did not fit in my existing computer. So another $120 of my money down the drain, another trip back to the drawing board for David – and another month of computer isolation, frustration and aggravation.

Then one day, while David and I were taking a cigarette break, he remembered that the company I work for has an entire room full of old computers that they have to pay to have thrown away. He theorized that it might be possible to take the hard drive out of my decomposing computer, put it in one of those old PCs, reinstall Windows – and basically put my computer’s brain into the body of a dead tower – creating his own electronic Frankenstein monster. So one day, we went to my company’s New Jersey office, David looked at the various computers in the room, picked one that he thought would be compatible – and brought it to my house to use to try and revive my computer.

As my luck would have it, the operating system of my computer was not responding. So David took my computer restore disks, had the idea of restoring Windows on an old hard drive that was sitting in my computer disconnected – and using my hard drive with my files on it as my D drive. Naturally, the disks were E-Machines disks and did not work. Frustrated on both of our parts, we gave up and David decided to order Dell disks and come back another time. It was at this point where I began to think that I would never see my files again.

Last week, David decided to give it one more try. He got the disks he ordered and we decided to get a Windows XP disk as a backup just in case the Dell disks did not work. So for the sixth time – we turned my dining room table into a surgical bed and David tried to wake the dead just one more time. After seeing that the Dell disks did not work, he tried installing the Windows XP disk on my old disconnected hard drive – and for the first time in this long ordeal – we saw a spark of life. After reformatting the drive and installing Windows – he restarted the machine – and to my amazement – Windows launched and my computer was once again alive.

After cleaning up and erasing the old Windows registry on my now D drive, David did what I have been waiting for since 5:30 that fateful morning – he clicked on the button that said “The Wein Files” – and thankfully, everything was still there and nothing was lost. I cannot tell you how I felt at that moment – because whether or not I still had all my files was a three month long mystery – until that gratifying moment when I could finally put my fears to rest.

Now that I have my computer back, I will take David’s advice and do something that I foolishly have never done before – purchase an external drive and backup everything. Truth be told, anyone in their right mind should have a current backup of all of their files – but who ever said I was in my right mind? But now that I once again am rejoicing at the revival of my computer – I realize that I am getting really sick and tired of having this happen to me – so for Christmas this year – a backup hard drive it is.

David, thanks for reincarnating my computer and giving me my files back – you’re a good friend.

Now where is my Delorian?