On Friday 26th April 2019 at 16.10 my darling computer died from what I called the sneeze of deaf which resulted in its gradual deaf. What happened I was working on my customer work with a thigh deadline for the 30/04 and I wanted a coffee. I made myself a coffee and went back to my desk and drank a bit of coffee and suddenly I sneezed the coffee came out of my noise and mouth lending on my darling laptop keyboard and a sizeable amount of coffee too.
Attempt to rescue my computer
I quickly blotted the liquid with the first thing I could find toilet paper and it blotted all the coffee and the top of the keyboard and in between the keys. I was panicking as I realised that my online business was going to disappeared if I do not managed to get my coffee out quickly enough. Panicking is counterproductive to say the least as totally forgot to turn off my computer which made the problem worse.
When I realised I turn it off but it was too late. I went and get my electrical heater and dry my laptop in a tent position and heater far away from it as I realised if it overheat it could blow up. This procedure took several hours and my computer was finally dried up. I did not use it until the next morning. It powered up as normal and I thought I fixed it well it was not the coffee spilt onto the hardware and gradually kill the keyboard.
I noticed that a few keys gone so I get my spare keyboard plugged it and it took over. I could work on my customer work for the all day and the next day Friday 26th in the morning. I gradually lost my mouse hence I plugged my USB wireless mouse it took over meaning that my USB port where still working as keyboard and mouse worked. I was calculating the damages caused and what I could salvage.
I carried on working on my customer work aware of my deadline and my computer starting beeping that not good, it is the motherboard advising you there is an issue with the hardware. I did not ignore it. I tried to backup my data quickly I plugged in my external hard drive in but because it is password protected when I tried to insert the password the external keyboard was affected and it started going into a loop after typing one key and put a line of never ending dot. I plugged in my USB drive which is not password protected therefore does not required keyboard function. Its opened and I tried to create a new folder called Girlfridayz which failed when I tried to name it same thing happen a never ending loop. I tried to cut and paste all my document folder on my account in my USB drive and that failed.
Under normal circumstances it would have worked but my darling was dying so it failed. At this point I thought this it no backup and my computer fading gradually I did not wait for it to died completely as It could damaged my files with error developing in programs and errors developing in my internal hard drive which has 2 TB of storage, therefore, taking the risk of loosing all my files and pictures, video, podcast basically my online business including customers files and business data files was too great and to wait and see what could be salvaged in the aftermath was just pure foolishness.
I turn it off, unplugged charger and removed the battery then took my screwdriver and opened it up and unscrewed my internal hard drive from it casing them unplugged it, removed the memory and my disk drive. I looked inside and the motherboard was stained of dry coffee all over it and the keyboard cable was full of dried up coffee. I blamed myself as if I had turn it off before bloating the coffee out the fan would not have spread the liquid due to air all over the motherboard.
I was sad and shaded a tears or two as it was my fault and my computer was performing to its maximum optimisation and it was well taken care of because it was my business equipment and it was Girlfridayz computer my working capital and declared as such to the HMRC as a depreciating business equipment. It was only three years old and HP care refused to renew the warranty therefore it would have cost a few pound to have it repaired.
Retrieving my data
I failed into despair for about 20 minutes morning the deaf of my computer but been a positive person I said to myself it is not really my fault people do sneezed it a normal bodily function so it was so unfortunate that it happened so quickly that I did not managed to turn my head away from my computer and added I need a new computer to carry on my online business and my business files plus customers file.
I informed my daughter that I killed my computer and without giving her an explanation she said mum you can lend my laptop as long as you need I have my other computer therefore I do not need it. I thanks her profusely and told her I spilled coffee all over it and it died gradually, she replied now you know no drink or liquid near your computer or drinking near a computer. I replied I taught you well I know that all ready to avoid unfortunate accident.
I went and get my hard drive reader USB3.0 all in 1 HDD Docking which can read two hard drives I have this because my business is an online business and all these equipment external hard drive (backup device), USB drive (saving device), external keyboard and mouse should be part of your business equipment as the latter demonstrate that they become a necessity when your laptop or even desktop computer developed issues and you need them to save you therefore worthy investment for any online business and these should be part of your business SWOT analysis under the solution for the threat criterion.
I created an other user account on my daughter computer and I used my existing details for Microsoft meaning my email. It them created my user account with all it previous setting and I restarted the computer on restart it asked me to put in my password I entered my password I used for my dead computer and I was logged in. I did not erased anything from my daughter I just had my business account on her computer. In order to see my customer files and business files. I plugged in my hard drive in the docking HDD and went to window setting user account and update my account to administrator privilege so I could use my hard drive.
Once I did that I plugged the USB of my hard drive reader and set up the driver once this was finished it read my hard drive and I saw all my windows folders I clicked on the user folder and went to my username folder I clicked on it and it say permission denied asked the administrator.
I restarted the computer and access my account with my password then tried to access my folder and it appears again but this time when I clicked it rendered there is errors on this drive click to fix it. It appeared that the coffee had made my drive developed error a prompt appears stating this drive has errors click to fix. I clicked on the fix then it informed me that it is fixing my drive I waited about thirty minutes and then it said click to continue to open my user folder girlfridayz. I clicked the continue button and after waiting another 20 minutes I had access to my drive all my customers files, business documents and picture plus podcast where saved and I could use them. I could finish my customers work and delivered the work on the 27/04 for my customers which was happy with the result.
Retrieving my online bookmark from my preferred browser
I needed to retrieve all the website I bookmark for over three years and the one I used regularly in my business or article I read which I wanted to keep until I no longer needed them. I opened Google Chrome from my account and it viewed it has a new application it asked if I wanted to set up an account or login with my existing log in. I logged in with my existing log in detail for my Google and I saw my logo appearing and all my browser bar bookmarks plus my bookmarks and my bookmark folder created I was so happy. As I could continue where I left off before I accidentally killed my computer with the sneeze of deaf.
Backing up your data
Backing up your data on external device is ever so important and to do it regularly too is a must as you update your backup with your last information. In our case I do backup my Girlfridayz business files regularly on my external hard drive and funny enough before my computer died two months ago I backup all my computer. So if I did not have all my equipment I still could have salvage some customers files and work off my drive until I have a new business computer but that was not a good option because my backup was too old and my new customers where not in there plus the work and my customer work that i was doing for 30/04 deadline was not in my backup so my only option was to retrieve my internal hard drive where all my latest worked was saved prior the crashing deaf of my computer.
Also do not backup on your computer it would end taking up all your storage over time and after a few years or months depending on how you use your computer and regularly save on your C: Drive the storage will run out. So it is best to invest in a USB external hard drive and backup using this device especially if you running an online business.
Conclusion
Lesson reminder for me never drink in front of your computer unfortunate incident can happen, like it did to me I sneezed out coffee accidentally all over my computer so these freak incident do happens and also I am happy that I have technology skills and solid updated knowledge so I could damaged control my losses and totally retrieve my online business and most importantly my customers files and data saved on my computer plus sensitive business data too saved on my computer.
I was able to retrieve everything therefore I can carry on providing a service to my customers and potential customers without intruding on my daughter account or viewing her file as I recreated my user account which is password protected on her computer. Therefore if she wanted to access her laptop while lending it too me my account is password protected and I removed my HDD docking as soon as I finished work and save all my work on my hard drive. By doing that when my business acquire a new computer I will be ready to transfer updated file to my new business computer.
I extend my sincere and heartfelt thank you to my daughter for lending me her laptop temporary until my business acquired a replacement laptop for our online business this a very kind gesture and I appreciate it very much.
If you like this blog post comment, like it and if this post help someone else who is running their online business that a bonus as the answer is no always get a new computer and it will be fixed it all depend on your business priority and business need. In my case it was very important for me to get everything back and pick up were I left off in the aftermath.
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