Profiles of People: Emanuel Popa, computer guru
Profiles of People: Emanuel Popa, computer guru
“Back in the Day”
Doug Ramsay photo, dougramsayphoto.photoshelter.com
Emanuel Popa sits in the workspace of his shop with computers opened up to be worked on at the desk behind him.
Emanuel Popa is only 36 years old, but he often reflects back to his time “back in the day,” because for him the phrase recalls the time when he fell in love with computers.
He was 14 years old, living a playful life in Piatra Neamt, Romania with his mother, Ana, his father Petru, and his sisters, Anca and Petronela.
And, he wanted a computer.
So he saved $100 and bought a broken laptop. The experience of fixing this now-antique computer that sparked a great passion in Popa.
These days, that 22-year-old 386 PC would be almost valueless dollar-wise, but back in the day it meant the beginning of a professional and personal odyssey of fixing computers from London to Snohomish.
In Snohomish and Monroe, Emanuel owns E-Man computer repair shops, but his shops are different from almost any other repair shop in the country.
Very few can do what Popa and his elite, highly trained technicians can do: Full data recovery.
Busted hard drive? He’ll fix it. Scratched disk?
In a clean room, his highly trained technicians, wearing sterile suits, will get your files back.
He says very seriously that “We find what you think is lost.”
There is a video on YouTube where Popa recovered the
files from a laptop from the bottom of Puget Sound. He recovers and fixes a computer that fell off a boat. The fun part of the video is when Popa surfaces with a humongous star fish attached to the lap top. Luckily the starfish slithers off back in to the murkey waters after feeling the cold unfamiliar
air.
So effortless the work seems when watching the experts work in sterile suits in the clean room in the back of the Monroe store. But the work is important so no contamination can occur. Valuable documents from the Vatican need to be saved; as well as work from corporations, prisons, and moms who have lost their children’s photos. Popa makes the customer feel that, “No job is too big or too small.” His demeanor helps
calm individuals who are seriously computer illiterate, as well as those desperate individuals from multi-million dollar corporations. Everything will be okay.
No job is too big or too small, and what is nice is his demeanor and expertise help those individuals who are seriously computer illiterate, as well as the desperate multi-million dollar companies. He makes us all feel like we are all important, and that everything will be okay.
Monroe Computer Repair and Data Recovery.
His early years in Europe gave him a positive impress-ion on how business is done in the United States.
He much prefers our cumbersome, yet usually fair functioning, system to what he experienced as a young man with businesses in Europe. There, he tells me, you have to label every little thing in your store or you will be fined
by the government. And you need to be prepared to put bribes in an envelope. This corruption went completely against his value system.
He marvels, as an entrepreneur, father, comm-unity member, at how our laws allow him to prosper and still feel honorable about how he lives his life.
In this country he knows clean hard work and long hours make a difference.
Popa, an active international traveler, enjoys his scuba diving.
Often you can see him in the evening walking with his mother, or his children, in downtown Snohomish, peering in at all the antiques he loves.
Patricia Therrell’s column traditionally appears on the fourth Wednesday of the month.
If you know of an interesting local person to profile, contact the Tribune at editor.tribune@snoho.com or call the editor
at 360-568-4121 x122.
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