# Is my laptop fried?



## Crickett (Feb 14, 2012)

It started smoking when I pushed the power button to turn it on. Is it fried for good? Have any of y'all had a similar problem before? 

I'm pretty upset about it. All of my photos are on there & none of them are backed up. Do y'all think I've lost them for good?


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## quinn (Feb 14, 2012)

Oh no!I had a little metal clip that came off and landed on the mother board.It was not good for me.I think the right it person can save your photos.Good luck!


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## BriarPatch99 (Feb 14, 2012)

Unless your HD got fired in the process... if not the contents can be transfered by removing the HD and connecting to another computer. 

Lesson learned ....always back up your Images .... not later ... but as soon as you move them to a computer.... and before deleting them from the camera card.

When I do a session...I burn two copies onto CDs ... one stays in one location(house) the other goes to the studio(in the safe)... I also back them up to a portable HD that can be moved among other computers.... doing this means I have four copies of the images ... 1 on the main computer, 2 and 3 copies on CD(stored in separate locations for fire reasons) and copy 4 on the portable HD...

Don't ask why I found out that I should do this.... and now you know too.


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## Crickett (Feb 14, 2012)

Ok I have another ? A lot of my photos are in my pse most of them have not been processed. Can those be saved or are they gone forever? I think the processor overheated & melted. I don't know for sure though. I planned on upgrading to a Mac but I hadn't planned on upgrading this way. 

Now I'm gonna have to put off buying the light meter I've been saving for.


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## Hoss (Feb 14, 2012)

You should be able to pull the hard drive and check it.  If it wasn't the hard drive that smoked, you should be able to get all the files stored there.  Now if the hard drive is in OK, get an enclosure for it and you will have an external hard drive to back your photos up onto in the future.

Hoss


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## wvdawg (Feb 14, 2012)

Oh no!  I hope you can save it!  I bet the hard drive is okay.  Good luck.


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## rip18 (Feb 14, 2012)

Yikes, doesn't sound good for your laptop!  As noted earlier, if your hard drive wasn't what was smoking, there's a good chance of saving your images & other stuff.

What is your "pse"?  I'm assuming a Photoshop Elements folder of some sort?    If so, then it should be on the hard drive & recoverable if the hard drive wasn't affected.

Wishing you good luck and an inexpensive, full recovery!


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## wilber85 (Feb 14, 2012)

Hard drive should be fine...but we dont know where that smoke was coming from...its not necessarily the processor.

Please do not call a Mac an _*upgrade*_!!


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## Crickett (Feb 14, 2012)

rip18 said:


> Yikes, doesn't sound good for your laptop!  As noted earlier, if your hard drive wasn't what was smoking, there's a good chance of saving your images & other stuff.
> 
> What is your "pse"?  I'm assuming a Photoshop Elements folder of some sort?    If so, then it should be on the hard drive & recoverable if the hard drive wasn't affected.
> 
> Wishing you good luck and an inexpensive, full recovery!


Thanks Rip. Yeah PSE is my photoshop elements. I dont think the hard drive is fried but I wont know for sure til I take it & have it looked at. 


wilber85 said:


> Hard drive should be fine...but we dont know where that smoke was coming from...its not necessarily the processor.
> 
> Please do not call a Mac an _*upgrade*_!!



I love Mac's & to go from the laptop I had to a Mac would be an upgrade to me.


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## Crickett (Feb 16, 2012)

Woo hoo just got back from geek squad & my laptop is fine! Didn't have to pay a dime either! Now I am definitely burning all my photos to discs.


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## quinn (Feb 16, 2012)

Sweet deal Crickett!


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## Crickett (Feb 16, 2012)

Guess what? After about 45 mins of use I go to shut it off & it starts smoking again! I tried to get it to come back on & now it won't & it's still smoking! This is frustrating! I know as soon as I take it back to Geek Squad it's gonna work fine for them!


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## quinn (Feb 16, 2012)

Well i hope you were saving some photos in that 45 minutes!


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## Crickett (Feb 16, 2012)

quinn said:


> Well i hope you were saving some photos in that 45 minutes!



Yes I was but I didn't get them transferred to discs just saved as jpeg files.


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## fourwinds (Feb 16, 2012)

If I were you I'd go buy an external usb hard drive. They aren't too expensive. You can back all your pictures up on that much easier than on CDs.


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## ronfritz (Feb 17, 2012)

On Youtube, search for your laptop and you can probably find a video that shows you how to remove your drive.  Then you can pick up something like one of these and connect the drive to some other computer...or your new PC when it arrives.  If you are getting an Apple, I'd spend a little extra time researching.  Once you have it connected via either this "toaster looking thing" or the plug, you can copy files off it just like it was any other usb drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

I've got one of the toaster looking things and have all the drives from all my old PC's and use them for backup.  Drive's sometimes fail completely but more often if the computer "dies" it's not the drive or if it is, you can still recover some of the files.  There's always hope.


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## Crickett (Feb 17, 2012)

fourwinds said:


> If I were you I'd go buy an external usb hard drive. They aren't too expensive. You can back all your pictures up on that much easier than on CDs.


Thanks I'm gonna try to pick one up when I get another computer. 


ronfritz said:


> On Youtube, search for your laptop and you can probably find a video that shows you how to remove your drive.  Then you can pick up something like one of these and connect the drive to some other computer...or your new PC when it arrives.  If you are getting an Apple, I'd spend a little extra time researching.  Once you have it connected via either this "toaster looking thing" or the plug, you can copy files off it just like it was any other usb drive.
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
> 
> ...



Thank you Ron. I've been doing some research on the macs this week. It's a big decision to go from a pc to a Mac. I've only ever used a pc & all of my programs are for a pc/vista. No matter which one I go w/ I will have to get new software b/c my pse7 will not be compatible w/ windows 7 or w/ a Mac.


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## BriarPatch99 (Feb 17, 2012)

I would use the external USB drive to get your photos copied off the troublesome computer HD.... and THEN worry about converting them to JPEGs or whatever...

Just remember that the portable USB are hard drives too.... hard drives fail .... internal or external... don't count on them to be safe storage long term...

Once you get them saved  ... you can use the PSE7 batch process under "File" ..."Process Multiple files" to convert whole folders of photos to jpegs and lots of other options/processes....


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## Crickett (Feb 17, 2012)

BriarPatch99 said:


> I would use the external USB drive to get your photos copied off the troublesome computer HD.... and THEN worry about converting them to JPEGs or whatever...
> 
> Just remember that the portable USB are hard drives too.... hard drives fail .... internal or external... don't count on them to be safe storage long term...
> 
> Once you get them saved  ... you can use the PSE7 batch process under "File" ..."Process Multiple files" to convert whole folders of photos to jpegs and lots of other options/processes....



Thanks Jimmy.


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## Crickett (Feb 17, 2012)

Well my laptop is for sure fried! Good news is they are able to transfer everything to an external hard drive. Now I just got to decide what to get for a replacement. I looked at both pc's & macs. Still undecided as to which way to go.


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## leo (Feb 19, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the laptop, but glad you can save the pics ... 



Crickett said:


> Well my laptop is for sure fried! Good news is they are able to transfer everything to an external hard drive. Now I just got to decide what to get for a replacement. I looked at both pc's & macs. Still undecided as to which way to go.


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## Hoss (Feb 21, 2012)

Sorry to hear it's toast, but sure am glad they could salvage the photos.  I'd still pull the hard drive off the old computer and buy an external hard drive case to put it in.  That would give you an additional external hard drive.

Hoss


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## Crickett (Feb 21, 2012)

Thanks for all the help & advice y'all! I really do appreciate it!

Now I will give y'all the bad news. I've pretty much lost everything. I bought an external hard drive paid geek squad to transfer everything. Went to pick it up today & was told they could only retrieve some of the data on the hard drive. It stopped working & kept giving them error messages.  I've connected the external hard drive to my desktop to see what was recovered & so far it's nothing that was really important. I can't seem to locate any of my RAW files. I was able to locate my pse7. 

Lesson learned!!! 

Let this be a lesson for everyone else. Back all of your important files up b/c you WILL lose it if you don't! I hope my mistake will prevent others from making the same.


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## Hoss (Feb 21, 2012)

That hurts.  Sorry to hear they couldn't recover your photos.  Good advice to protect those memories.

Hoss


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## BriarPatch99 (Feb 21, 2012)

They can still most likely be recovered.... IF you are willing to pay the price....

There are companies who give such services ... they take the platters out of your HD and put them in another HD( or devise) and transfer your data.... all for a price....

Tally used to offer such services ....

Another... http://www.securedatarecovery.com/hard-drive-data-recovery.html

There are also "tricks" that you can find on how to recover files .... do a little research for some ideas ... 

I rather let someone who knows what they are doing ... but if the $$ was more than I could afford... I may would try some of them just to see...


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## DONK (Mar 2, 2012)

Im sorry to hear about your files. Im surprised no one has mentioned online backup.  Redundancy is key: local drive, external drive & offsite(online).  Online backup is relatively cheap around 50-60 bucks a year for unlimited storage. I use crashplan. I've also heard good things about mozy or carbonite.  I could only imagine the trouble I would be in if we lost anything.  Good luck, I hope someone can recover something for you.


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