Can a laptop survive 6 hours of rain?
- Thread starter tsmckenney
- Start date
Mark Twain
Call me Ishmael.
My advice:
Tell your wife that you think she's the sexist woman alive everyday for the rest of your life.
Or you can just buy her a new computer, which ever's easier.
mysterea
New Member
I've had my share of accident experience both by my own fault and others and my opinion is as follows:
Remove the battery (this is the best course of action from the get-go)
Let it sit in a spot that gets air circulation for at least three days, maybe more
The components themselves are not truly affected by water, only the 'arc' that can occur when connecting to seperate circuits (and pumping more juice into the circuit than it can handle)
I'd believe it's very possible you're fine, but if it doesn't fire up at least the harddrive should be okay. The only way it's not is if the power or IDE to the harddrive took a hit and fried the board. If you need a hand with this shoot me a PM and I can give you some options.
Rob
Remove the battery (this is the best course of action from the get-go)
Let it sit in a spot that gets air circulation for at least three days, maybe more
The components themselves are not truly affected by water, only the 'arc' that can occur when connecting to seperate circuits (and pumping more juice into the circuit than it can handle)
I'd believe it's very possible you're fine, but if it doesn't fire up at least the harddrive should be okay. The only way it's not is if the power or IDE to the harddrive took a hit and fried the board. If you need a hand with this shoot me a PM and I can give you some options.
Rob
Flea7
Member
...so did it survive ????????
mysterea
New Member
I'm kindof curious as well...
Hey Tom, I've got some good tools for getting data off drives if you're in need of 'recovery' too..
Nothing like those 'data recovery services' use, but they're 10 grand. I can offer you 'pretty good' for free! =)
~R
Hey Tom, I've got some good tools for getting data off drives if you're in need of 'recovery' too..
Nothing like those 'data recovery services' use, but they're 10 grand. I can offer you 'pretty good' for free! =)
~R
l0venpeace
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2007
- Messages
- 60
Two suggestions:
1. Buy her flowers. Quick. And not just a dozen either. You need at least two.
2. Next time, maybe you should buy a toughbook. Those things are rugged.
Good luck!
1. Buy her flowers. Quick. And not just a dozen either. You need at least two.
2. Next time, maybe you should buy a toughbook. Those things are rugged.
Good luck!
tsmckenney
Mick
I powered it on yesterday. It did survive. I'm having a problem with the battery though, as we've had to pop it in and out a couple times to get a connection. Everything is there though, so she will at least be able to get everything backed up. Her office was planning on getting her a replacement as well. That will happen sooner rather than later. Funny thing is, she was going to give me this one. So in the end, I screwed myself. I'm not sure it will be a working unit for long. Per the advice of our IT guy, I will clean the battery connectors with rubbing alcohol and see if that helps the connection.
Again everybody, thanks for your input. Glad I gave it a few days to completely dry out.
Again everybody, thanks for your input. Glad I gave it a few days to completely dry out.
mysterea
New Member
Hey Tom,
Glad to hear everything's cool.
You may want to consider either of the following options for the future, as I'm sure you're now realizing the importance of regular backups:
An external harddrive, this particular one is 160 gigs, which would be sufficient if you don't have a big repository of pictures, porn, mp3's, or videos. If you need something bigger these get up to a terrabyte, let me know if that's something you need. This one's 90ish bucks, you can easily get one for 500 gig for about 50$ more, and a terrabyte (more space than you'll use) for about 260$
http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...1&langId=-1
An external harddrive enclosure (which takes regular harddrives, you can get these to accept a laptop or normal harddrive, whichever) The nice thing about these is you can use regular harddrives, which makes for easy upgrades, and comes in handy when you leave your laptop in the rain and need to get your data off it pronto!
Talk to me if you have any questions or need any details.
Rob
Glad to hear everything's cool.
You may want to consider either of the following options for the future, as I'm sure you're now realizing the importance of regular backups:
An external harddrive, this particular one is 160 gigs, which would be sufficient if you don't have a big repository of pictures, porn, mp3's, or videos. If you need something bigger these get up to a terrabyte, let me know if that's something you need. This one's 90ish bucks, you can easily get one for 500 gig for about 50$ more, and a terrabyte (more space than you'll use) for about 260$
http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...1&langId=-1
An external harddrive enclosure (which takes regular harddrives, you can get these to accept a laptop or normal harddrive, whichever) The nice thing about these is you can use regular harddrives, which makes for easy upgrades, and comes in handy when you leave your laptop in the rain and need to get your data off it pronto!
Talk to me if you have any questions or need any details.
Rob
tsmckenney
Mick
I've got an external drive I use to back-up all of my home recordings (music). My wife mainly has Word documents and family pictures. I'm thinking the best thing there is a 2 gig flash drive. Then she can keep adding and updating, rather than constantly burning unreliable cds. What do you think of that? It's got to be something easy for her. If she's having to go back and forth to an external drive, I doubt she'll do it often. With the flash drive, it's blammo and done.
Thoughts...
Thoughts...
Well 2 gig ain't much space. If you are talking a speed issue, yes the flash drives are very fast but the external drives are pretty fast too, just a little more cumbersome. I certainly wouldn't use only the flash drive to keep my docs on. That thing is easier to lose than anything. You also get a lot more bang for the buck with an external. I use one in the office to back up laptop data all the time. I've setup a folder tree for each of the guys with laptops.
I also keep a note in my PDA to remind me to do these backups on a regular basis. I backup stuff at home on the same schedule.
Just my 2 cents.
I also keep a note in my PDA to remind me to do these backups on a regular basis. I backup stuff at home on the same schedule.
Just my 2 cents.
mysterea
New Member
Agreed about the flash drive, they're great, but not a great 'true backup solution'
That being said, you should look into a piece of backup software. None of this copy and paste sh*t, 'cause then it's never done enough unless it's a pain in your ass, and at that point, who wants it?
I've heard Synctoy works well, I use a piece of software I stole from my father long ago, I don't recommend it, as it's mad old-school. Most of these wares allow scheduled copies, some allow options for copying on startup, shutdown, or upon insert of a device (like portable harddrives etc) There's a bunch of options in this field, and some others may have more suggestions for you, my current knowledge is lacking here as all I know is enterprise-wide and old school stuff. I'll happily research 'clean' options for you if you need...
That being said I'll happily assist as you know, and by the way Tom, your name isn't Tom. (That's my a$$hat officemate, sorry)
~R
That being said, you should look into a piece of backup software. None of this copy and paste sh*t, 'cause then it's never done enough unless it's a pain in your ass, and at that point, who wants it?
I've heard Synctoy works well, I use a piece of software I stole from my father long ago, I don't recommend it, as it's mad old-school. Most of these wares allow scheduled copies, some allow options for copying on startup, shutdown, or upon insert of a device (like portable harddrives etc) There's a bunch of options in this field, and some others may have more suggestions for you, my current knowledge is lacking here as all I know is enterprise-wide and old school stuff. I'll happily research 'clean' options for you if you need...
That being said I'll happily assist as you know, and by the way Tom, your name isn't Tom. (That's my a$$hat officemate, sorry)
~R