IT Help Please!!!

[valmara1971]

Gents HELP please, my SWMBO had an accident involving fine wine and a lap top. It sputtered to death and of course will not boot up. We have of course lots of valuable data on it's HDD. Can anyone offer ideas on how to recover the data especially emails. I have been in a similar situation and the shop I took it too assured me they had recovered all data but the emails were lost. It's a vary bad day in the Valmara household. Can you offer any hope? Thanks for your time.

 

[Edcculus]

Assuming your hard drive isn't fried, you need one of these:

USB to IDE hard drive adapter. This will basically let you use your hard drive as an external hard drive. Take the drive out of the computer you spilled on. Hook it up to the adapter, then run the USB connector to another computer. For a laptop hard drive, you shouldn't need the power supply. Your computer should recognize the hard drive. Pull off any data you need.

This connector is also helpful when you get a bad virus that runs at startup.

 

[bradyarz]

if the emails are saved on your hard drive, you should be able to get them. depending on your email service, you might be able to talk to your IT rep and see if they have some sort of archived copy.

as for getting the data off your hard drive, i highly recommend this

it works like a charm. pop your hard drive in (2.5" or 3.5") and plug the usb into another computer. you can view everything just like it was a flash drive.

that being said, it comes with a few caveats:
1) the hard drive in your laptop must be sata. there are other docks that will work with other drive connector types, but the one i mentioned above is the only one i have personal experience with.
2) you must be comfortable opening your laptop and removing the hard drive.
3) after you're done retrieving your data, you're left with a ~$40 piece of hardware you're not likely to use again unless you need to retrieve data off another hard drive. i say if you can get all your data off the drive and backed up, just keep the drive in the dock and use it as external storage.

feel free to pm me with any questions you have. if you're not sure whether or not you have a sata hard drive, i may be able to help you figure that out. i am supposed to be "working" right now, so it may take a bit for me to respond, but i'll help you as far as my knowledge base extends.

 

[Edcculus]

If its a laptop, its more than likely not sata. Most laptops I've seen are basically pin connectors. The connector I linked to above will let you connect any type of hard drive.

 

[valmara1971]

Hi guys I have found this
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48965 and hope it will do the trick? There is none in stock at my local branch but I'll try and get one delivered if you think it will do the trick?

 

[professorchaos]

Whatever you do, don't power it on until you give it a chance to dry out! Don't even plug it in.

 

[Commander Quan]

Before you go out and buy equipment your not sure how to use. I would take it to a shop that can specialize in data recovery. If they can get the drive to spin up, and if you do have copies of the emails on the PC they should be able to recover it. Liquid will do nothing to the contents of the hard drive, only ruin the electrical parts that make it work. If in fact the drive is unreadable, and depending on how important this information is, you can have the drive sent out to be rebuilt, but that just depends on how much it's contents is worth to you.

 

[valmara1971]

I am letting it dry out but the area of spillage was right over the cpu so I dont hold out much hope for the actual lap top itself. I know the hdd contents won't be affected by the accident but I was at a loss at how to get back at the data. I have other lap tops/computers to import the data into but just need a point in the right direction on where to start. I scratch built my pc but lap tops are another kettle of fish!

 

[gollum83]

Whatever you do, don't power it on until you give it a chance to dry out! Don't even plug it in.

Well, Maybe I'm reading the initial post wrong, but I think its a bit late for that. And if that is indeed the case, the motherboard is likely beyond repair.

Anyway, back to the original question. The hard drive is likely fine. I would go ahead and remove it, although I would personally just get a hard drive enclosure and and stick it in there. That way you have a protected drive to backup files on easily, in addition to being able to get to your files.

 

[Edcculus]

That should work

Before you go out and buy equipment your not sure how to use. I would take it to a shop that can specialize in data recovery. If they can get the drive to spin up, and if you do have copies of the emails on the PC they should be able to recover it. Liquid will do nothing to the contents of the hard drive, only ruin the electrical parts that make it work. If in fact the drive is unreadable, and depending on how important this information is, you can have the drive sent out to be rebuilt, but that just depends on how much it's contents is worth to you.

Well, if his computer is shot, he won't ruin anything by taking the hard drive out. You can even find picture tutorials on how to take apart almost any laptop. Hard drives are usually held in place by a few screws and don't require anything invasive to remove.

These things are simple to use. Plug in your hard drive, then plug the connector into the computer. Your computer will see it as an external drive, and you can pull off any data you need. The only difficulty will be is if you don't know where the email is stored on your computer. Depending on what program you use, a simple Google search could give you the answer. The biggest precaution I would make is trying your best not to move or bump the drive once its plugged in to another computer. Also, if you don't have another computer to plug it into, this connector is worthless.

 

[chfair]

if the shop got anything off of the comp hard drive it means it is functional. they probably did not grab the files for email. they do not always check all the places programs save email, a lot of computer places grab your my docs folder maybe desktop stuff and thats about it.

if i recall older versions of the default windows email client the data saved to the program files of that program. you might consider taking the drive back to the tech company and see if they will go back in and grab the files if they exist (for free they should not have missed them in the first place). be sure to tell them what program you used for email, or hook the drive to a dif comp and get the files as has been suggested.

 

[valmara1971]

if the shop got anything off of the comp hard drive it means it is functional. they probably did not grab the files for email. they do not always check all the places programs save email, a lot of computer places grab your my docs folder maybe desktop stuff and thats about it.

if i recall older versions of the default windows email client the data saved to the program files of that program. you might consider taking the drive back to the tech company and see if they will go back in and grab the files if they exist (for free they should not have missed them in the first place). be sure to tell them what program you used for email, or hook the drive to a dif comp and get the files as has been suggested.

Sadly that ship has sailed it was almost 2 years ago when it was in the shop and we have mostly recovered the information. It's all on the lap top which was fried last night! Do'h I'm going to source one of these cables and have a go myself. Cheers guys.

 

[soapbox]

If its a laptop, its more than likely not sata. Most laptops I've seen are basically pin connectors. The connector I linked to above will let you connect any type of hard drive.

Two points: If the laptop is more than two years old, it's more likely got a PATA hard drive. The PATA to SATA transitioning is mostly complete in the laptop world, and it has been complete for three or four years in the PC world for new PCs. However, most USB to HD connectors are universal enough to handle a few kinds of PATA and SATA, though some can't handle larger drives (greater than 500 GB of storage).

Next: for the love of all that's holy, buy a grounding strap and learn how to use it when working on your laptop. They're not expensive, and you would kick yourself endlessly if your data were safe on the drive until you walked across a carpet in wool socks and channeled 10,000 volts of static electricity through it during your rescue attempt.

Finally, I know it's not a good time to remind you of the importance of backups, but once this ordeal is over, drop 75 quid and buy a backup hard drive and use it at least weekly. What if the laptop had been stolen or dropped instead of drowned in the fruit of the vine?

Best wishes in this endeavor and let us know how it goes.

 

[Luc]

+1 on the portable HD.

I got a very small one for $89 AUD. 250 gb, 1 usb connector, not 2, no power supply. Works like a charm!

 

[valmara1971]

Yes Yes and Yes I know the importance of backing up. I have a lot of the data elswhere it's the emails and their attachments which is the big problem. It's not my computer and I get told off for "messing" with it except when the worst happens of course then it's why didn't you back up my pc daily!