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The unthinkable just happened - computer disaster


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:eek: I think I'm in shock.     

 

Lesson plans, calendar, and resource lists for the first 9 weeks of next school year that I've worked for the past few weeks to set up in virtual binders in that miraculous OneNote program are GONE after a drink somehow managed to leap across the table and spill directly into my laptop, frying the motherboard.  And no, I hadn't backed it up on an external drive. :banghead:

 

I say "gone" to prepare myself for the worst, but I am holding a small hope that the hard drive may still be readable. (Please, please, please!!!)

 

Feeling a little sick to my stomach. :ack2:

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You probably already know this but if the drink is sticky get it to a computer repair shop to clean it out before trying to spin it up.  Can you take everything apart so the liquid can get dried up/removed?   And even if it was water be careful trying to turn it on until you dry everything out.

 

 Edited to add I am so, so sorry!  Ugh!

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Even if the computer won't power on, the data on the hard drive may still be ok. I'd take it in and find out. Hopefully they can salvage your data. We were celebrating my husbands new job (after some unemployment) and my daughter tipped a glass of champagne into my friends laptop. Sheesh! I have my fingers crossed for you.

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I did try that already. The tech said that the motherboard was ruined. (The whole thing got really HOT to the touch. I didn't expect that!) They are checking the hard drive.

 

Picture me as Scarlett from Gone With the Wind in that desolate, scorched earth scene where she's waving a carrot around, only I am holding an external hard drive up, shaking it toward heaven as I vow, "I will never go without backing up my files again!"

 

 

 

 

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But don't you have a One Note Account that you can log on from another computer to retrieve it? I thought it was all stored where it could be accessed on multiple devices.

 

ETA sorry, I was thinking of Ever Note. Maybe the advise will still work. Hoping!

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Oh no! I can sympathize. Last year I wrote out 6 weeks of lesson plans in a notebook using erasable gel pens so that I could easily make changes. A week later I discovered that the ink fades from any type of pressure (like being piled in a stack of books) and I lost it all. I was so mad! Hopefully they will be able to pull the data off the drive for you.

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Oh no! I can sympathize. Last year I wrote out 6 weeks of lesson plans in a notebook using erasable gel pens so that I could easily make changes. A week later I discovered that the ink fades from any type of pressure (like being piled in a stack of books) and I lost it all. I was so mad! Hopefully they will be able to pull the data off the drive for you.

My daughter found that the erasable pens are erased through heat (e.g the heat from the friction of erasing). If you put an erased page in the freezer, the writing comes back. I haven't tested it, but she said that she and a friend used this method to recover some of their work that disappeared when the teacher left their papers in the sun! Doesn't help with the OP's problem, of course...

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I did try that already. The tech said that the motherboard was ruined. (The whole thing got really HOT to the touch. I didn't expect that!) They are checking the hard drive.

 

<snip>

 

The Hard Drive is a separate component and the fact that the motherboard is dead does not guarantee that the hard drive is also dead. It would depend upon how the hard drive was installed in the laptop and whether or not the electronics of the hard drive got wet.  The circuit board, the cable connections, etc.

 

Have the "tech"  install the hard drive into another laptop, and if the hard drive  works in that laptop, he/she can copy the data you need onto a DVD or USB stick or something for you.

 

With hard drives, it is not "if" they are going to fail, but "what day" they are going to fail.

 

I have a free account on DropBox and that saved my rear, a few years ago, when my PC was destroyed by a nearby lightning strike. I had our web sites backed up to removable media, but the very latest versions of the web sites were only on DropBox. Between the 2, I was able to get back to where I was, fairly painlessly, on a different box.

 

A few weeks ago, I came in here, very early one morning, and I turned this old PC on. The hard drive had died. I replaced the hard drive and got back to where I was, in 1 or 2 days.

 

Moral of the story here is to backup to an off site service (DropBox, etc.) and also to back up anything  important to Removable Media (CD-RW, DVD-RW, USB stick, removable hard drive, etc.)

 

BTW, 2 or 3 days ago, my wife handed a dead hard drive, from my stepsons laptop. I destroyed it, before putting it into the trash for the recyclers.

 

FYI, there are lots of people who have Dedicated Web Servers on the Internet who do not have backups...  After their systems crash, they learn that having off site backups is rule #1...

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I did try that already. The tech said that the motherboard was ruined. (The whole thing got really HOT to the touch. I didn't expect that!) They are checking the hard drive.

 

Picture me as Scarlett from Gone With the Wind in that desolate, scorched earth scene where she's waving a carrot around, only I am holding an external hard drive up, shaking it toward heaven as I vow, "I will never go without backing up my files again!"

 

Oh my goodness, it's so awful, but at least you can find some small amount of humor in it!   :lol:

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Do you access the OneNote account from any other computer? If so, you probably have a Skydrive account, and OneNote syncs to it automatically when any changes are made (assuming you have internet access at the time). That's how it works on ours. You can check that to see if your work is there.

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Even if the computer won't power on, the data on the hard drive may still be ok. I'd take it in and find out. Hopefully they can salvage your data. We were celebrating my husbands new job (after some unemployment) and my daughter tipped a glass of champagne into my friends laptop. Sheesh! I have my fingers crossed for you.

 

And, oh my goodness, just to be clear!!! My daughter was NOT drinking the champagne! 

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Oh no! I can sympathize. Last year I wrote out 6 weeks of lesson plans in a notebook using erasable gel pens so that I could easily make changes. A week later I discovered that the ink fades from any type of pressure (like being piled in a stack of books) and I lost it all. I was so mad! Hopefully they will be able to pull the data off the drive for you.

 

It fades. But I thought it also came back. You just need to put the notebook in the freezer?

 

I use the Frixion erasable pen for my journal and this is making me nervous!

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Did you sign up for SkyDrive?  If not, try logging onto your Microsoft account online using your email address and password.  See if you can find your data there: https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=12&ct=1402498453&rver=6.4.6456.0&wp=MBI_SSL_SHARED&wreply=https:%2F%2Fonedrive.live.com%2Fedit.aspx%2FPublic%2FOnenote%2520Homeschool%2520Sample%3Fcid%3D9d5eef5285662e9b%26id%3Ddocuments%3F%26&lc=1033&id=250206&cbcxt=sky&cbcxt=sky

 

A few weeks ago, when I had my homeschool notebook sample online there, when I logged in using my hotmail account, I noticed that all my notebooks in OneNote were located there.

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I have lost untold amounts of digital data, and untold amounts of hardcopy books and notes. NOTHING is safe ever. The more effort I have gone to protect something, the more bizarre the story of it's loss.

 

Sometimes we get redirected in life. Whatever force you believe in, likes to kick us onto new paths. If your life is anything at all like mine, a backup wouldn't have changed anything. Stop blaming yourself. Don't start over-thinking plans to prevent a similar occurrence in the future, because all that does is slow you down during times when you are not being redirected.

 

The harder I fight, the harder I get kicked. I don't fight so hard anymore and although I can't say it's "working", it's better than all the  :willy_nilly: and  :banghead:  I was doing. I'm just learning to pick myself up and to learn to cope with frequent changes and lots of uncertainty. I think I'm learning to trust a bit more. I don't know what I'm trusting, and my idea of "okay" has become wide as an ocean, but I trust things will be okay, no matter what is going on. And many of these kicks have led to better things; things I could never have imagined; things I never would have had room for.

 

:grouphug:  Forced change is very uncomfortable. I'm just hoping this one was for your later good and that incredible blessings are forthcoming very soon. May you be blessed and SOON!

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