Computer Woes!

Does anyone know where one could get data recovery done and how much it would cost? I spilt something on my laptop - yargh! and it is caput taking with it 4 years worth of university work and a host of documents which I need - job applications etc!!

I presume the hard drive is ok and stuff can be got off it.

johnfás wrote:

Does anyone know where one could get data recovery done and how much it would cost? I spilt something on my laptop - yargh! and it is caput taking with it 4 years worth of university work and a host of documents which I need - job applications etc!!

I presume the hard drive is ok and stuff can be got off it.

Hard drive should be OK, and should be salveagable. I can't remember costs, but I had it done for a laptop when I was pretty poor, and it didn't break the bank. As to where...Google shows quite a few.

I have to buy a USB 2.0 to IDE adaptor and a friend is going to do the rest for me (thank God for friends)... any ideas where to get one of those?

Do I need 2gb RAM to run windows vista? Need to get a new laptop as cheap as possible.

johnfás wrote:

I have to buy a USB 2.0 to IDE adaptor and a friend is going to do the rest for me (thank God for friends)... any ideas where to get one of those?

Do I need 2gb RAM to run windows vista? Need to get a new laptop as cheap as possible.

lap top spillages - what a nightmare. I survived one last year but the keys are still sticky.

I seem to remember that it happened to EVM recently - he should have some good advice.

For future reference you can get some cling filmy stuff that clings over the keyboard and protects it completely from crumbs, coffee spillages, spiders etc etc.

Has it dried out yet? Sometimes they recover when they do. If it is still damp mop carefully and turn it upside down and leave it a while.

cookiemonster wrote:

johnfás wrote:

I have to buy a USB 2.0 to IDE adaptor and a friend is going to do the rest for me (thank God for friends)... any ideas where to get one of those?

Do I need 2gb RAM to run windows vista? Need to get a new laptop as cheap as possible.

DO NOT GET VISTA!

Well we agree on one thing Cookiemonster!! Johnfas you need to get a new pc get them to downgrade to XP , it will cost about 15 euro but forget vista it's crap. Recently got word 2007 which is good but takes a bit of getting used to. Make sure you save all doc in compatability mode or no one will be able to open them except other 2007 users

johnfás wrote:

I have to buy a USB 2.0 to IDE adaptor and a friend is going to do the rest for me (thank God for friends)... any ideas where to get one of those?

Do I need 2gb RAM to run windows vista? Need to get a new laptop as cheap as possible.

If you want to get a cheap laptop, go north. With the pound and the euro almost at parity you get them effectively at crazy prices. One friend of mine at the end of the year went to a place in the North and got a laptop on sale here for €650 for the equivalent of €290!!! He stayed up north over night with a gang of people he went up with, went out for an expensive meal and went on a pub crawl, and between them he and his gang still came back having saved €2K between them on electrical goods, computers, etc. (One of them, who had bought a new laptop in November when he needed a new one urgently, was mega pissed off when he saw how even with the exchange rate back then he would have saved a packet. His brother picked up a laptop plus accessories for less in Belfast than the accessories alone were in Dublin in November!!! )

Mac laptops can be picked up in the North for less than €600!!! (Brian Lenihan won't like it, but tough! Cowen and company were happy to rip us off with prices for electronic goods for years. For once we can get our own back and rip off those who have ripped us off in the past!)

I'm in London on Wednesday and Thursday so the plan is to get it there. My friend is going to salvage everything from the hard drive tomorrow and give an opinion on whether or not it is worth getting my laptop fixed, if it costs more than 150 in parts to get it fixed I'm not going to bother because it is 5 years old as it is so even the bottom of the range laptop will be better than it.

The reason I ask about VISTA is, as I said, I'm in London for 24 hours and I won't really have time to order a new one with specific bits and bobs, I will basically be going into Currys and picking one up. All the ones on their websites seem to have vista .

johnfás wrote:

I'm in London on Wednesday and Thursday so the plan is to get it there. My friend is going to salvage everything from the hard drive tomorrow and give an opinion on whether or not it is worth getting my laptop fixed, if it costs more than 150 in parts to get it fixed I'm not going to bother because it is 5 years old as it is so even the bottom of the range laptop will be better than it.

The reason I ask about VISTA is, as I said, I'm in London for 24 hours and I won't really have time to order a new one with specific bits and bobs, I will basically be going into Currys and picking one up. All the ones on their websites seem to have vista .

What about ordering on line? Once I ordered one, and got three.

JCSkinner over on P.ie seems to think that data retrieval is a rather pricy affair, don't know much about it myself. I think you probably would need 2gb for Vista, though you could probably get away with running it on 1gb for a couple of days (it might be a tad frustrating). Long term though I agree you should get rid of it, have you considered some variant of Ubuntu Linux?

johnfás wrote:

I'm in London on Wednesday and Thursday so the plan is to get it there. My friend is going to salvage everything from the hard drive tomorrow and give an opinion on whether or not it is worth getting my laptop fixed, if it costs more than 150 in parts to get it fixed I'm not going to bother because it is 5 years old as it is so even the bottom of the range laptop will be better than it.

The reason I ask about VISTA is, as I said, I'm in London for 24 hours and I won't really have time to order a new one with specific bits and bobs, I will basically be going into Currys and picking one up. All the ones on their websites seem to have vista .

johnfás, you could give me a laptop running vista for free and I wouldn't take it. Even with 2GB it is PAINFULLY slow. It would really be worth it to shop around and get one with XP. Evening going second hand and spending a few quid on upgrades would be an option.

My laptop died a couple of months ago (HD packed in - it was ok though I had backed up everything, a hard lesson to learn) and I searched for weeks for a laptop running XP. In the end I went for a Ultra Mobile PC, most of them will have XP because they're just not big enough to run Vista. But the performance is fantastic for documents, web and email. I've even run some huge databases on it and it's fine.

Here are a few, you could order them for delivery to a friend or relative in the UK, save you some money too...

http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=167695
(the one linked above has Vista, but you can but it with XP)

http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=172914
(I have the one above, got it because the spec is great and the price is low and I'm delighted with it. NO CD drives or games[well] but if it's just for work you want it you can't go wrong. It's only got 3 USB ports but it's enough for keyboard and mouse and an external CD drive[doesn't have one built in] and does have a output to connect an external monitor to)

http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=175293

I bought an Acer notebook (really is very good, screen resolution is fantastic, quite quick response-time too) only two weeks ago, it came with XP, not Vista, it cost under E400. If you look for them, you'll find one (I got one in Harvey Norman, which I'd have preferred not to do, but it was an emergency)...

evercloserunion wrote:

JCSkinner over on P.ie seems to think that data retrieval is a rather pricy affair, don't know much about it myself. I think you probably would need 2gb for Vista, though you could probably get away with running it on 1gb for a couple of days (it might be a tad frustrating). Long term though I agree you should get rid of it, have you considered some variant of Ubuntu Linux?

I've had it done twice from office computers. About 80 euro I think, depending on how much time it took.

These things are allows going to happen.
If its importants Data should always be backed up on a separate device, even a portable hard-disk if a file server seems pricey.

Oh for the days of a quill, a ledger, and an ink-well....

I now have 8 gigs of my files on USB memory sticks thanks to the generous time of a good friend. What a genius! We think I have everything off it now but I am keeping the Hard Drive safe and if I suddenly realise I have missed something he will get it off it for me now that he has it all cracked. Hard Drives have alot of security I would never have realised... like when he plugged it into his computer my hard drive knew it was in the wrong computer and wouldn't give him any information! He managed to fix it though.

Now the laptop hunt begins .

johnfás, was the laptop on when you spilled the spill. What was spilled ? Do you have a desktop ?

It was a comedy of errors... and so little liquid... I was putting ear drops in (have an ear infection) and the bottle fell on it and went down the back of the keyboard inside it. The laptop was on and initially just the screen went off then it all went off. I left it upside down in the hot press for 4 hours while I went to the NCH, when I got back it came on but the screen didn't so I hooked it up to a monitor and it did actually work. I went out of the room to get a drink and when I came back in it had switched off and hasn't switched on since. All that happens when you press the on buttons is all the LED lights switch on for about 2 seconds then go off again.

That laptop may still be OK. It depends on whats in the drops etc. Most liquids are not conductive enough to cause a permanent electrical fault.

A good spray down of the motherboard with isopropyl followed by a short dry off, and you could be back in business. Taking the thing apart is the nasty bit usually. Worth a shot though.

toxic avenger wrote:

I bought an Acer notebook (really is very good, screen resolution is fantastic, quite quick response-time too) only two weeks ago, it came with XP, not Vista, it cost under E400. If you look for them, you'll find one (I got one in Harvey Norman, which I'd have preferred not to do, but it was an emergency)...

The bigger Tesco stores do Acers at brilliant prices.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

That laptop may still be OK. It depends on whats in the drops etc. Most liquids are not conductive enough to cause a permanent electrical fault.

A good spray down of the motherboard with isopropyl followed by a short dry off, and you could be back in business. Taking the thing apart is the nasty bit usually. Worth a shot though.

Was less than 10ml because the bottle was only 10ml and there is still some in it... probably about 8mls fell down it...

I have another friend who did electronic engineering... he is back from skiing tomorrow might get him to have a go at that!

The friend I showed it to this evening reckoned it was the graphics card or the mother board.

johnfás wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

That laptop may still be OK. It depends on whats in the drops etc. Most liquids are not conductive enough to cause a permanent electrical fault.

A good spray down of the motherboard with isopropyl followed by a short dry off, and you could be back in business. Taking the thing apart is the nasty bit usually. Worth a shot though.

Was less than 10ml because the bottle was only 10ml and there is still some in it... probably about 8mls fell down it...

I have another friend who did electronic engineering... he is back from skiing tomorrow might get him to have a go at that!

The friend I showed it to this evening reckoned it was the graphics card or the mother board.

I trust you punched a puppy to avenge this indignity.

Yup, I looked down and went fuuuuck there goes the summer holiday...

johnfás wrote:

Yup, I looked down and went fuuuuck there goes the summer holiday...

Excellent, my son, excellent.

duplicate