Macbook pro tea spill

Trog

I'm panicking. I just spilled tea on my macbook pro. Most of a cup. It shut off straight away. I pulled out the charger and tried to dry it, but it won't turn on again.

I can accept that I'm a reatard for spilling tea on my expensive laptop, and even that it was probably stupid to try to turn it on straight away, but here's the thing: two HUGE essays for my final year of college were on it. Not backed up. They took six weeks to write, and are due, along with a third which I'm still working on, in about 10 days.

Am I ever gonna see my macbook alive again? More importantly, have I just screwed the work I did for the last 4 years of my life in a split second? Is there any way I can get my essays back? (plus music, movies etc, which are less important).

I know I should've backed up my work, but to be fair I tried, but the USB key I got wouldn't work on mac, and then I forgot to get one that would.

Please please tell me I'll get the files back. Please. I beg you.

(Ironically, it was a special herbal tea which helps me sleep. Fat chance of sleeping for a long time now.)

Jonathan

Take out the hard drive and try using it in an enclosure with another device capable of reading HFS+ partitions.

Chances are the mainboard is fried but the hard drive is probably ok.

Trog

Not being in any way Tech Savvy, I have no idea how to do that. But if I leave it as is and bring it to a repair shop they should be able to recover the hard drive if that's the case then?

Also, if anyone knows if I'll be covered on the applecare insurance I paid for wehen I got it, that information would be useful. But the most important thing is the essays right now.

ironictoaster

I don't think applecare covers water damage unfortunately.

hearny

Applecare doesn't cover spillages.

Dont get tempted to turn it on yet, If you can find a ziploc bag big enough put it in it with some silica gel sachets (you will get them from arts and crafts shops), some dry rice will also do the trick but not as effective.

leave it for a few days in the hot press.

Unfortunately with Macbook pros and other apple products taking the hard drive out is much more difficult to do than regular laptops.

www.ifixit.com has great walk throughs for removing the hard drive if you want to do it yourself.

If you are around waterford I can do it for you.

Trog

Thanks guys.

I brought it to a tech guy in my friend's work who took the hard drive out and got the essays onto a CD for me, he also dried the inside as best as he could. I'm gonna see if it still works in a few days when it's definitely dry and if not I'll just have to go laptopless. Crisis averted on though, got the essays and that's the main thing.

Thanks for the advice and help, especiall hearny for the offer to take the hard drive out. Back to work now, on my family's old, slow as hell PC.

bagels

Always back up your essays by emailing them to yourself after each work period, as well as saving them on the usb stick.
Also, get external access to your college network and you'll be able to save your work on their site.

Pawwed Rig

Hi
Glad you got your essays back. I have a similar problem with my old Dell Inspiron (hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread rather than starting a new one).
The laptop was pretty much caught under a leaking roof for the best part of 10 hours. (equivalent amount of water as a running tap). The laptop was powered off and not plugged in at the time. I have removed the battery and the hard drive and have not tried to power it on since. Can anyone recommend a repair shop in Dublin City Centre that they have used? Not too worried about the laptop itself but I have lots of photos and documents that I don't want to lose.
When I took the hard drive out there was wet patches on it too. Also it had that ozone smell so pretty worried about it.

Anyone have any advice?