Hi Carlos,
I understand where you are coming from - I keep and use older machines as well! Over the life of a machine one of the things I almost always find necessary it to install a bigger hard drive. I don't throw the old drive away, after I'm happy with the new one, I wipe the old one and re-install a base operating system on it. Then if I ever need to take the machine to a repairer, maybe because it needs special tools, I swap out my current hard drive and put the old one with the base operating system on it back in. Then there is nothing to steal on the machine taken in.
In your case, this would have an added bonus, after you put the old drive back, try and boot it. If it still won't boot the machine still has the fault and it's suitable for the techie to have a go at. If it does boot, then the fault is either on the current disk you just took out or in the software on it. You do the right thing and keep your backup up to date, so a new disk, a restore on to it and you are off to the races!
o look at the economics of the repair - I hate to throw things away but sometimes that's the only sensible action.
And for the future, do consider encrypting your sensitive date.
Good luck!

Chowhound
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