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Yes, I feel bad for spilling liquid on my $3,000 Macbook Pro

J

jmpmntwnty3

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 15, 2007
332
38
South Carolina
Okay ... here's the deal. I somehow, accidentally spilled a teeny tiny drop of liquid on my 17" 2.66 GHz i7 Macbook Pro. Actually ... I spilled it on the table, and it somehow migrated into the vents and now my computer is ********.

Once the spill happened, my speakers made this really weird noise, so within seconds I flipped my computer over and tried to dump out any liquid that had gotten into it (as I held down the power button to shut it off).

I'm not sure how much liquid got into it (cause when I dumped it, hardly any came out) but I let it sit for about a day, and tried to turn it back on. Once I turned it back on, the screen acted really funny (and my speakers continued to make that weird noise), so I cut it off, waited for another day and cut it back on.

Once I cut it back on, it worked (the speakers still make that funny noise ... so I'm guessing that part of it is really ********) and now I'm trying to backup my harddrive to time machine so that I can just get a new one. I just bought a 1 TB HD, and every time I try to use Time Machine, it backs up about 1 GB and then fails, prompting me to run Disk Utility.

So now I'm just trying to use my brother's MB Pro and connect it to mine (via firewire so that I can use the HD) and just copy/paste my entire HD to a folder on the backup HD and use that to copy/paste to my new computer.

I said all of that to ask ... is that the logical way to go about this? (Since Time Machine clearly is not letting me be great) Will everything (including user settings, applications/settings, files, documents, etc.) properly copy over with a simple copy/paste of the entire HD?

I'm open to any suggestions, please let me know, thanks!!
 
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I'd recommend removing the hard disk from the computer, placing it in an external disk enclosure (USB or FireWire) and then copying the data off of the drive using another computer - this would most likely be the most reliable way of recovering your data from the disk.

Copy your documents, photos, and any other crucial data - I wouldn't worry about any of the preferences (although if you wish to back them up they are located in ~/Library/Preferences) as those can be recreated on the new machine. I wouldn't recommend placing the old hard disk in a new computer (whether it be a new MacBook Pro or otherwise) simply because it may cause further damage or the disk itself may already be damaged.
 
Apple 26.2 said:
Someone please fact check me, but I don't believe a copy/paste of home folder(s) will bring over settings and such.
Click to expand...
Copying and pasting the entire contents of the home folder would in fact restore most, but maybe not all, of that users preferences and data. The only thing I could think of that would cause a problem with this would be directory/file system corruption or permissions issues.
 
Thank you all for your suggestions, but I just stumbled on this (on Apple's website):

Using Disk Utility

This alternative backup process will produce a disk image of your entire Mac OS X disk's contents. This process preserves the unique attributes of your files, such as permissions, ACLs and UUIDs. A disk image backup is good for an archive-type backup for offsite storage.

You may wish to store the external disk in a different location (an offsite backup). If your external disk does not have enough free space to hold future backups, consider using a different disk or deleting prior backups to free up space on the external disk.

Would I be able to do this through firewire? (shut my comp down and use the HD through my brother's macbook, then copy/paste that disk image to my new external HD -- I have 216 GB of data and he has over 400 GB free on the computer on his hD)
 
You should be able to back your disk up using Disk Utility easily. That being said, I would recommend repairing your disk's permissions and verifying/repairing the disk through Disk Utility's First Aid tab prior to backing up the disk to prevent any issues related to permissions or file system corruption from interrupting the back up process.
 
If you're using your brother's MB Pro - why not take your new external drive - set up a partition and then instead of copying everything over - clone the drive to that new partition? That way you can bring that clone back to your new machine after you get it fixed - and it'll be as if nothing ever changed?
 
macking104 said:
Have you taken your computer to an Apple store, or an authorized repair facility to have them look at it...? It may not be ****#%^%****.
Click to expand...

Not yet ... I'm not even at home. I'm out of town and where I am, there is unfortunately no Apple store (just an "authorized reseller" who charges $100 to just look at it. So I'm forced to either wait 'til Sunday when I get back (which means 3 days of no work, I run a semi-big website, do a lot of freelance work for others, and can't afford to miss not even 1 day of work).

So I'm forced to probably just go ahead and get a new one in the morning, get this one fixed up, and sell it for like $2K or something on Ebay or something to try and recoup at least SOME of my money.
 
EightmanVT said:
If you're using your brother's MB Pro - why not take your new external drive - set up a partition and then instead of copying everything over - clone the drive to that new partition? That way you can bring that clone back to your new machine after you get it fixed - and it'll be as if nothing ever changed?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately ... that's a mission fail. I just tried to do that, and it appears that my superdrive is damaged. When I put the OS X Snow Leopard install disk in there, the drive makes some noises, then spits it right back out. My best guess is that this is a result of the unfortunate spill incident.

So ... I can't use Time Machine. I can't use Disk Utility. What next? Are there any programs out there that do the same thing w/o me having to use my disc drive?


(and if I'm correct, you're supposed to reboot with the disk in the drive),
 
jmpmntwnty3 said:
Unfortunately ... that's a mission fail. I just tried to do that, and it appears that my superdrive is damaged. When I put the OS X Snow Leopard install disk in there, the drive makes some noises, then spits it right back out. My best guess is that this is a result of the unfortunate spill incident.

So ... I can't use Time Machine. I can't use Disk Utility. What next? Are there any programs out there that do the same thing w/o me having to use my disc drive?


(and if I'm correct, you're supposed to reboot with the disk in the drive),
Click to expand...

Assuming your USB ports work...

1: Buy external USB drive.
2: Handle your Snow Leopard business.
3: Buy new MBP.
4: Return external USB drive (or keep it for a rainy day).
 
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