I'm screwed...

[Caoimhe]

:mad:

I spilled some liquid on my laptop and just got the bill from my friendly laptop repair people. Apparently it needs a new system board and keyboard. $815 worth of parts/work. It's a Toshiba M30 and is about 1-1/2 years old. I am sick to my stomach. I can buy a new laptop for less, but then I would lose all my stuff. Any advice?

PS I just looked on ebay for keyboard protectors for laptops... My husband is about ready to kill me.

:mad:

[Angry Girl]

1. Find a company that will archive the data from your old hard drive

I don't know any of them (and some may be quite expensive since they deal mostly with corporations) but there are folks who rescue old data from computers that were in fires and whatnot. It should be a straightforward job with yours, as the hard drive wasn't apparently damaged. But you should be able to find somebody to do this for a a couple hundred dollars or so, I would imagine, depending on the quantity of data.

Anyways, then you can buy a new laptop and still have your old data.

On Edit: Google the words

hard drive data recovery

You shoudl be able to find someone, preferably local!

Good luck!

[SlackJawedYokel]

2. Simple solution.

Pull the hard drive out of the dead computer.
Buy a 2.5" USB 2 hard drive enclosure... no more than $30.
Fit the hard drive into the enclosure.
Attach to *any* computer via USB port.
Recover your data.
Use the new removable to back your new data up.

This assumes that you didn't do anything to the hard drive, of course.

Good luck
Cletus

[rhett o rick]

10. Will that work for a PC internal hard drive? I have one i rescued from

a damaged pc. Can i buy a case and use it externally?

[hobbit709]

3. Was the power on when you spilled it?

They may be trying to BS you. I've cleaned tons of keyboards and motherboards. The trick is to make sure that after you clean the coffee, coke or whatever, you have to thoroughly dry the board before applying power. 99 out of 100 will work fine afterwards.

[jayfish]

4. You Are Exactly Correct. Caoimhe PLEASE READ!

If you want a chance to get this LT back in salvageable condition (especially your hard drive), you should make a surprise visit and tell them you want to pick it up. If you can get it back without them making sure it needs the replacement parts, you can get a second opinion. Your data should be relatively easy to retrieve. A spill (if it damages the drive at all) would most likely take out it's logic board before it physically damaged the drive itself.

Jay

[DavidMS]

5. That pc repair company could give you your data on disk.

You could ask the laptop repair place about delivering the data on CD/DVD (most are pretty reasionable about pricing). Or pick up your laptop and pay the diagnostic fee and get that external drive case that other people in this thread mentioned.

I used a external keyboard with the laptop I used in college and the spills onto the external keyboard simply resulted in my buying a cheap keyboard as opposed to a new mainboard.

The repair cost is in line with what it costs to fix an HP or IBM that took a drink.

[bluedonkey]

6. I had my computer in for repair

and they transfered my data to an external harddrive and I didn't lose anything.It was(I hate to say it ) Circuit City,charged me $39+.Doesn't hurt to ask them.

[Caoimhe]

7. Oh yeah.. sorry to tell you.. I paid the bucks and now I have

her back, my trusty laptop "Maude". This is indeed the most expensive night light I've ever owned. Now I need some ideas on the best way to back up shit. How do you back up (and catalog) your personal files? I take a lot of photos and while on the road load them onto this laptop (I call her Maude because she is "the silver fox") I have quite a collection of mp3s also.

Seeking suggestions...

[Papa]

8. You might try this.....

I bought myself one of those little USB flash drives that fits on a keychain. I bought a 2GB version. I back up my files now on the flash drive. 2 GIGS is plenty of space for my stuff and it allows me to use the flash drive on ANY computer with a USB port.

Depending on how many mp3's you have, they may or may not fit on a flash drive, but all of your other stuff should.

The other benefit of a USB flash drive is that you can put programs on it too. I have a portable browser, a portable email program, mp3 player, etc.. which allows me to keep all my email with me and all of my bookmarks with me too and use it from any pc I'm connected to. Never will I have to start from scratch again (unless I lose the USB flash drive).

Let me know if you need more info.

[ellenfl]

9. external hd with usb connect for backup. my 2 pennies eom