Have you split water on your laptop and are now worried about the important data saved on it? This situation is worse than any nightmare and, dead laptop data loss can hit you hard. Don’t worry, we will help you to recover data from water damaged laptop. There are several professional data recovery software and methods available that you can use to recover data from your laptop.
When your laptop is exposed to water, its internal components can get damaged and cost you a valuable resource. This damage became more serious especially when the hard drive of your laptop was exposed to the water. The hard drive is a device in your laptop or computer from where you can access and store all your data. It stores your pictures, videos, music, files, the information you save and the information your computer needs to run. So, when your laptop is exposed to water, immediately apply some data recovery methods to get all the stored data.
Here, in this article, we have provided common methods that can apply to your laptop when exposed to water.
Can Data Be Recovered From Water Damaged Laptops?
The first question that must come to your mind after a spill is “Can I recover data from the damaged laptop?” The answer is obviously Yes, but it absolutely depends on the data recovery method you opt for.
It is also dependent on how extensive the damage is. Usually, when the hard drives of your laptop get wet, the water could potentially cause a short circuit, especially if it dries on the platters.
Depending on the circumstances, however, the data recovery process may become more difficult or perhaps impossible. The disks of your hard drives have little, fine heads that read all the information stored on their platters. When the water dries, it can leave a film or residue over the platters and heads, and thus make it difficult to recover data over time.
Quick Methods to Recover Data from Water Damaged Laptop
Instances may occur when the water gets spilled on your laptop, but its hard drive is still accessible. In such cases, it is quite easy to recover the data. The following professional data recovery methods can help you mitigate any data loss after you spilled liquid on a laptop.
Method 01: Direct Data Backup to another Storage Drive
Once you release that water is split on your laptop, immediately clean and wipe off every component. Now, wait for at least 2-3 days and then check if the machine and parts are dried out and assemble your laptop.
Now, check if your laptop boots normally, and whether you are able to access your drive data from File Explorer. To launch File Explorer, press Windows + E keys or press Windows + R and type diskmgmt.msc in the Run prompt to open Disk Management.
If you are able to access your data, use a SATA to USB Converter cable to connect an external storage drive. Then, transfer or copy-paste all the essential laptop data to it.
Note: We must back up the data of our laptops from time to time in order to prevent permanent data loss in the future.
Method 02: Use Professional Data Recovery Software to Recover Data
If your hard drive has dried up, use a SATA to USB Converter cable to connect the laptop drive to a different device. Next, you need to check if the hard drive is accessible through File Explorer or Disk Management.
You can opt for professional data recovery software, like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to recover data from your water-damaged laptop. The software is designed with powerful algorithms and allows its users to recover data using extensive features. Given below are some simple steps that you can apply to recover data using this software:
- Firstly, download the Stellar data recovery professional software on your Windows PC. The software hardly requires a few MB’s of drive space.
- Once the file is successfully downloaded, double-click the .exe file to install the software in your system.
- Launch the Stellar data recovery professional software. From the ‘Select What to Recover’ screen, choose the ‘All Data’ option if you want the software to initiate the recovery task. Click the ‘Next’ button.
- Now, from the ‘Recover From’ screen, select the data loss location from where you want to recover data. Or else select the connected drive from where your required data is deleted.
- Once the scanning process is successfully completed, select all the files that you want to recover. Click the ‘Recover’ button to save recovered data.
Quick Precautions to Apply When Water Spilled on Laptop
We all know that water is dangerous for electronic devices. Hence, it is always important to take precautions by keeping our devices like mobiles, tablets, and laptops away from water. But if by mistake water gets split on your laptop or other electronic devices, don’t panic. Given below are some simple precautions that you need to apply when your laptop gets wet.
Don’t Panic:
The first thing that you must do when water spills on your laptop are to stop panicking. Keep yourself relieved as you can recover data from the device. All you have to try is to take some safeguards so that maximum data can be recovered.
Turn Off Your Laptop:
Make sure your laptop and hard disks are unplugged from the power source. Spilled water on the laptop can be disastrous for your laptop and even cause issues like short circuits. So, remove the battery of your laptop and avoid connecting the water-damaged storage media to any PC or laptop.
Don’t Dry the Laptop
Many users dry their hard drives by using a blow-dryer or keeping them under the sun. But this may reduce the chances of recovering your data to a great extent. When you dry the drive, it causes the deposition of contaminated residue on the platters. The data residing on those platters will get damaged.
So, never dry your laptop using any drier or by keeping it under the sun. Leave it as it is! Yes, keep your laptop wet; it will prevent its corrosion and can allow you to recover data using professional data recovery software.
Tips to Avoid Such a Situation in Future
As we all know – Prevention is better than cure. So, it is important to understand what could be done to prevent altogether getting water spilled on the laptop. You can opt for the following tips to avoid such issues in the future.
- Never keep drinks, water, or other consumables near your laptop.
- If it is not possible to keep drinks or beverages away from your workplace, at least use a sipper or a container with a closed lid.
- Always use a laptop bag with double protection against water. Some bags provide inner and outer waterproof layers that keep the water away from your laptop.
- If it is possible, invest in a cleverly designed laptop that offers advanced built-in features to counter spilt water on the laptop.
Conclusion:
Hope, the above-mentioned methods helped you to restore data from the laptop that gets wet by a water split. Water damage can make your important data inaccessible and put you into panicking situations. First, always try to keep a backup of your files that you can use in the future. If you are unable to keep a file backup, immediately contact a laptop data recovery service provider to provide you most effective solutions to protect a water-damaged laptop from being dead forever.