Is my laptop completely f**ked?

[ethelina]

Shit shit shit I've just spilt a whole cup of tea over my laptop! It's completely dead at the moment, is it done for?

Oh gosh - what a nightmare, ethelina, esp given the short time you have had it. What make and model is it, please ? Just that there may be some easy way to get the hard drive out (as that would be small and cheap to send away for the files to be copied off).

I know it would not compare with a new laptop but recently on Ebay have been looking at XP desktops for a client and suggested he get one for a bit unde 115 quid ... 160 GB HD, 2 GB RAM, 3 GHz dual core CPU, means it should run somewhat faster than his old machine (40 GB HD, nearly 95% full, 512 MB RAM, 2.x GHz CPU) and cheaper than calling me out from time to time to sort it out after one or other of his two teenage lads has been on and filled it up with junk/ got a virus...

I had put limits of about 50 to 100 quid and at least half a dozen came up, minimum 1GB RAM, 80 GB HD, and one even had a flat screen with it. The one he is getting was the most expensive of the lot by ~ 10 quid as it has 2 GB RAM. One had 250 GB HD, and all were 2.5 to 3.5 GHz CPU. Running XP (hence dated, but quite acceptable).

Fortunate you have the older laptop, despite it being slower etc. Where (roughly) are you in the UK ? I have at least half a dozen [old style] 15" / 17" monitors, suitable for a desktop (OK, not as swish as a new screen, but a lot cheaper even sent by next-day courier than ~100 quid for a flat-screen, and cash better put towards a new laptop in the spring, perhaps.

Yikes TW! On data recovery one firm I know (which switched to MDaemon mail on advice after their old mail server crashed) spent 5K on getting the data recovered.

The old MS Exchange mail server held all messages in one giant file. They had about 6 years of messages (now about 11 years total), and the directors needed/wanted them all !!

When the server died, this massive file was corrupted and could not be retrieved, at least by the local support company they used. Went off to a specialist firm in London and was done in about 10 days but at significant cost.

Am trying to think of the name... was from something in HHGTTG but for the life of me has gone for now. Anyway, MDaemon keeps each mail message separately so there are thousands of messages but they are more easily backed up and moved to a replacement server.

NWG - yes, I kind of knew that full-on data recovery in the UK or Australia would be up in the £1000 region, even for a little laptop; hence the Singapore company was a good deal, despite the courier costs!

Tis very scary when it happens though... I almost decided to go back to a desktop as a result so I could have 2 hard drives again, one for progs, one for data. But the USB drive should be fine as a backup IF I remember to use it!

It would be so much easier if laptops came with 2 hard drives installed, then this wouldn't happen - but then lots of data recovery people would be out of jobs too...

Unfortunately even if a laptop had a second drive, that would also be prone to the same spillage /dropping problems.

Today I suggested a couple of clients get externat Hitachi X-Mobile 500 GB drives (runs OK with Win 7, XP, Vista) as it comes with backup s/w.

Better still for some people would be to use Humyo.com (they give 5 GB free for storing media files [audio, video, photos] and 5 GB for other documents). For free you have to up/down load via a web interface, whereas for some monthly fee you can have some software that makes the remote storage look like an extra drive and you can just copy files via Windows Explorer / File Manager.

Some backup software such as the Hitachi and freebie from AVG let you keep a remote website in sync with new files added to one of your folders. It's OK for backup of a folder where you add new sub-folders from time to time, eg a new folder of photos from a birthday party/ holiday / event.

They also offer scheduled backups of complete folders/ drives (OK to backup a laptop drive to external drive, but not to a remote service on the web as it can take ages [weeks for 300 GB] and uses up any data allowance.

Other services and facilities exist. The allowances can be low on free services and some features may require a user to upgrade.

In the UK, BT Vault is one option (can work out costly and limited quantity of data).

Carbonite is worth a look if you have several PCs as they have (at least in the past) no published restriction on how much data can be stored. Your problem becomes that of uploading it. (For UK users, some ISPs do not count traffic uploaded, just downloads, and others have very generous limits.... between 0200 and 0600 AAISP allows data in 1000 GB volumes (downloaded) at cost of a fraction of that during the day. They do not charge for uploads.

Its a Dell something 17in screen. Not very helpful i know but away til tomorrow night, will check model then.
Latest advice from tech is that the main board is almost certainly gone, and probably the keyboard, if its salvagable will cost £££ and to try claiming on home insurance.