Bangkok Floods 2011 – How to Recover Flooded Equipment
With the Bangkok Floods of 2011 we are getting a lot of requests for what to do if your computer gets flooded
Hopefully you have managed to move all your electrical equipment high enough not to get wet.
However if the worst happens and your PC or laptop has been water logged here are a few tips, which may increase the chances of recovery:
- The most important thing is DO NOT TRY TO TURN ON any device which has been in the water, even if it appears to be dry do not try to turn it on just yet
- If an item has batteries in it (even mainboard CMOS batteries) these batteries should be removed ASAP
- Try to speed up the drying process as much as possible(except for hard disks which have been submerged in water-see note at the end of this post)
- Open up the device and place it near a fan
- Place devices on a dry towel in the sun for 30-45 minutes at a time (depending on how hot the sun is in your area).
For All-in-one devices such as ipads, Apple imac or HP Omni its best to take it into a computer shop as they are complicated to open and you may damage it more.
After your equipment has had time dry then you can move on to testing:
- Please make sure you have given at least a weeks time before you try to switch anything on.
- If you have valuable data on your hard disk, which is not backed-up elsewhere then we recommend that you remove the hard disk and get it checked by an expert.
- Be patient rushing will only cause more damage and reduce the chances of saving your equipment.
- If you have access to another working computer it is a good idea to try and use that machine to test components 1 by 1.
If you have a hard disk that has been submerged in water then DO keep the hard disk WET. Ideally, keep the hard disk drive in a sealed container to keep the hard disk drive wet. This stops the hard disk drive corroding and allows the technical staff at the recovery company to clean and dry the platters correctly with minimum damage to the platter surfaces.