A thought .... if the Windows Password is that easily broken or bypassed wasnotwas.... despite being very long ..... couldn't the Tech do that?
Of course he could.
Windows accounts passwords offer a low level of security. They are meant to keep away family members or co-workers -- and, up to a point, rogue software. Think of them as a door with a padlock separating your garden from your neighbour's. The assumption is : although your neighbour might be tempted to wander around your premises if they were wide open, he's not an evil man intent on harming you. A burglar, however, would have no trouble at all breaking your padlock with a grinder, crowbar or whatever.
Ditto for Windows passwords. Although I've never used them and I'm not aware of their particulars, my understanding is that there are plenty of software around able to reset one's Windows password. Even though they are not condoned by Microsoft, they have legitimate uses : for instance, if you've forgotten your password, the password hint does not help you, and you haven't made a password recovery flash drive as is the recommended procedure.
I'm not aware of the legal or ethical aspects of the issue, and I don't know what the computer technicians' practice actually is, but technically speaking, yes ; it's perfectly conceivable that a provider of computer assistance, on receipt of a locked PC he's asked to repair, would reset the password with one of those tools, on the assumption that hey, you voluntarily left your computer with me, asking me to bring it back to life, so of course I had to reset your password, now here is your PC back in working order, with no harm done, all you have to do is to set a new password and off you go. Now it's £ xxx please, thank you very much.
If you chose to go the external hard disk option, bear in mind that encryption would still be a good idea. External disks are small, easily lost or stolen. Think how uncomfortable you would be if someone, anyone, could lay their hands on all the files you have in there.
However practical external disks may be (and they have a lot of advantages), I don't think you should contemplate putting all your data there and not on an internal disk at all, planning on the very elusive possibility that some day, you
might need to leave your PC for repair somewhere.
External disks are better suited to backups, they are a useful part of a sound policy of data safety. But if you had to put your data exclusively on an external disk, for everyday access, there'd be several drawbacks ; first of all slowness, because it would be likely accessed through USB 2.0 or 3.0.
E-SATA external connectors and rackable disks do exist, but I'm not sure this is a practical solution.
Same thing about online storage. By all means do take advantage of it, but don't rely exclusively on it, not even for backup -- and certainly not for the main and only repository of your data. Online means you're not in control.
Also, you'd have to think why you should even need to leave your kit with a computer technician some day. The best strategy is to make sure you don't have to. And that is achieved through backup.
You can recover from the worst computer disasters if you have good backup. Practice with a good imaging and backup software such as
Macrium Reflect (there's a free version, but buying the full version might be one of your best tech investments).
Have always at hand
more than one copy of a recent image of your system. Keep also
more than one recent copy of your data if it is on a different partition or internal disk. In order to restore your system, you need an image. In order to restore your data, you could use an image, or a folder-and-files backup.
Macrium Reflect does both. Both have their advantages. Practice both.
Of course, you'll put those backups on an external disk. Or on more than one external disk. Or on a NAS. Or on an external disk
and in the cloud. Remember : if you only have one backup, you don't have any backup. If the backups you have are all in the same place and they can be lost, stolen or destroyed in a fire, you don't have any backup.
And backups can easily be encrypted. As a matter of fact, they should. They include all your computer life.
Macrium Reflect does that, also. I mention Macrium because it's one of the most reliable and reputable solutions around, and because I use it, but there are plenty of others.
Happy computing
.
