xps m140

Question

Well wouldn't you know it, after telling all the kids not to drink next to my laptop I was the one to spill a 32oz diet coke on it, and in a matter of sec. my computer stoped working.  Out of warrenty told me it would cost anywhere between $400 to $700 to look at it and replace the mother board.  Well I have been looking for a reason to get a new computer.   Is there a way I can take my HD out and get all the info off it on a different laptop or cd?  Tech support told me that he thinks there might be a docking station of sort where I can plug my hd into and then a usb cable to a differnet computer, this would make it into a ext hard drive of sorts, and I could get all my info off that way.   Has anyone heard of this, and if so what is it called and where do I get it?

ejn63 · Answer

Remove the hard drive and mount it in an external USB enclosure, and attach it to a working system. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817348022

illdog · Answer

Message Edited by illdog on 07-17-2007 09:01 AM

jaldri01 · Answer

Awesome.  Thank you!!!

jaldri01 · Answer

Thanks for the info on the external enclosure.   But here is another question for you, that is if you dont mind?   When I got home from work, I was able to turn my computer on, but I get a error msg. that states 'Internal HDD Hard error'    Do you think I will still beable to get the info off the drive with this error? I was also wondering if I bought a new drive and inserted it if I could keep my system, I would hate to spend the money on a new drive, only for my system still not to work with the diet coke problem. if you know what I mean.

ejn63 · Answer

You won't know whether you can recover data until you try to do the job.

If the soda didn't hit the drive, it's very possible the drive is fine and the mainboard is what is dead - did you disassemble the notebook to clean it up and check for damage?

jaldri01 · Answer

Well thank you for your help, I removed what I thought was all the screws and I still couldnt open the case, I didnt want to pry open anything in fear that I would make matters worse.    On a up note, I just got off the phone with my wife and she said she turned my computer on and it booted right up, she said no more blue screen and no more error, she was able to do everything. so I hope its all good.  at the least good enough to get all my stuff off it.   do you know where I can find a how to guide to take the laptop a part at all?

ejn63 · Answer

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps140M/en/sm/index.htm

Storage, Drives & Media

Was this post helpful?