laptop damaged and worried about not getting paid!

nadimmu

OK so this is what happened:
I have been using my HP laptop since June, i recently moved to Griffith's Accommodation, i got my room and found out it didnt have a network port except that one port in the kitchen/living room. I've been using my laptop in the living room table (thats about 2 metres away from the kitchen) since september.
Recently one of my roommates spilt water on my laptop, its dead. just dead. i lost all my files, assignments, homework, pictures, music, etc. he left it on, didnt bother to turn it off until he went to bed.
I called his parents and they said they would pay only half the price of the laptop because it was my fault in the first place leaving it out on the living room coffee table.
Im telling them to pay for the damages and pay for the full laptop price.
Am i right for telling them to pay the full price? i
dont see how this is my fault in the first place?
the laptop has been there for a long time, with no problems.:mad:

Doctor DooM

His parents aren't really responsible at all, what does the roommate say?

KdjaCL

the hard drive is till recoverable so you lost nothing really just the power to boot into windows.

Any half decent pc fixer will get every single item off that hard drive and onto a new one for 50 quid.

You left the laptop there so assumed they would use it, dont see why anyone should pay for something they didnt mean, if they did fair play.


kdjac

mikemac

Your laptop is 9 months old, they devalue fast.
It's not worth what you paid for it. Much the same way as if you buy a new car and crash it two years later you get the current price.

50% might not be fair but looking for 100% is not fair either

Doctor DooM

KdjaCL wrote: »

the hard drive is till recoverable so you lost nothing really just the power to boot into windows.

Any half decent pc fixer will get every single item off that hard drive and onto a new one for 50 quid.

You left the laptop there so assumed they would use it, dont see why anyone should pay for something they didnt mean, if they did fair play.


kdjac

You can download a 2.5 inch caddy from komplett.ie which will allow you to access the hard disk like an external HDD. Might be something to think abot OP.

nadimmu

well the roommates told his parents about the problem, so they can pay for it. he did admit in the end that he did it. the other roommates that live there say i shouldnt pay a cent, since it wasnt my fault

Boston

You left it on the kitchen table. Your fault.

muppetkiller

Ya like poster above said you haven't lost your harddrive and should be able to recover it easily enough.
And you are partially to blame for leaving your laptop in a Kitchen area..

mikemac

KdjaCL wrote: »

You left the laptop there so assumed they would use it, dont see why anyone should pay for something they didnt mean, if they did fair play.

Huh?
At the risk of going offtopic, your neighbours kid didn't mean to puck a sliotar through your window. The kids parents shouldn't pay and you'd replace the window out of your phoca?

dr.bollocko

Well it can depend on the extent of the water damage. I certainly think it would be appropriate for them to replace the laptop with one of a matching spec, considering that the thing is FUBAR, damaged beyond use, it is an ex-laptop, joined teh choir invisibule, etc.

As regards the lost files, it is possible that the HDD is ok you know. If you turn over the laptop, its normally the right corner, sealed in place by two screws. (Screws should have a drum like logo next to them) Remove this now just in case it is still intact, at least try and save those files regardless!
You could also buy an external HDD casing and turn this possibly still working HDD into a cool tiny USB drive. Then shove this tiny cool USB HDD in your friends face and start ranting about how he couldnt destroy you!

Doctor DooM

nadimmu wrote: »

well the roommates told his parents about the problem, so they can pay for it. he did admit in the end that he did it. the other roommates that live there say i shouldnt pay a cent, since it wasnt my fault

Legally no idea, but if I were you I would check what the going rate for a laptop with te same stats as yours is on Dell, and ask for that. As mentioned above, laptops depreciate fast.

nadimmu

i did buy an enclosure, the HD spins, but it isnt read by any computer i've used, even with the drivers installed.
when the guy at right-click opened the hard drives IDE inclosure, we found water vapour, which may have damaged it.

Doctor DooM

nadimmu wrote: »

i did buy an enclosure, the HD spins, but it isnt read by any computer i've used, even with the drivers installed.
when the guy at right-click opened the hard drives IDE inclosure, we found water vapour, which may have damaged it.

You might be done then... thats really bad luck.

KdjaCL

hard drives are fairly strong devices, you should move that part of the thread to Comp tech as every hard is recoverable unless its smelted


2nd part i still reckon its your fault, when i shared a house my tv was the main one i left it in the living room 32" WS tv, other lads broke it one day. they paid up but thats cos we were mates and i never asked them as i left the tv int he sitting room and it got broke due to ehh stuff happening ( golf ball went tru it as they were practicing their swing).



kdjac

TerrorFirmer

In fairness, asking for them to pay for the full original laptop price is outrageous. However, it is his fault, and I would be after the person who split water on it to pay partial costs of a similar laptop - was he using it when he split water on it? I don't think you'd have a case for the cost of a new laptop, seeing as you left it out on the kitchen table, an area in which people are inevitably going to eat and drink...

the_syco

nadimmu wrote: »

Im telling them to pay for the damages and pay for the full laptop price.
Am i right for telling them to pay the full price? i
dont see how this is my fault in the first place?
the laptop has been there for a long time, with no problems.:mad:

50% is pretty good, as the notebook would be worth maybe half the amount it was then, if even that. As KdjaCL said, you can get your stuff off easy enough.

Oh, and you mention him leaving the notebook on. Maybe he A) didn't notice that he had spilt stuff on it, or he didn't think it was damaged.

Finally: I hope in future you backup your stuff. This is a "minor" problem, and your files can be gotten back. It's minor, as opposed to your hard drive dying, where everything goes down the drain.

/edit
Read the new posts. Ah well, should still be able to get it back. leave the stuff to fry for a few days, and then check it again.

Wibbs

nadimmu wrote: »

i did buy an enclosure, the HD spins, but it isnt read by any computer i've used, even with the drivers installed.
when the guy at right-click opened the hard drives IDE inclosure, we found water vapour, which may have damaged it.

If it spins chances are very high it can be recovered. There's a crowd on the north side of dublin whose name escapes that will get the data back. There's a few services online and overseas that will do the same thing. Costs a few quid. naturally way more expensive in Ireland.

Jack B. Badd

Do you have home contents insurance? Or do your parents? If they do, you should check to see if it's covered on their policy - mine was covered when I was at college even though I wasn't living at home.

KdjaCL

Wibbs wrote: »

If it spins chances are very high it can be recovered. There's a crowd on the north side of dublin whose name escapes that will get the data back. There's a few services online and overseas that will do the same thing. Costs a few quid. naturally way more expensive in Ireland.

lol i do it for large bottles of bulmers


kdjac

the_syco

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

Do you have home contents insurance? Or do your parents? If they do, you should check to see if it's covered on their policy - mine was covered when I was at college even though I wasn't living at home.

It also depends if they said you were or were not living at home

humanji

As was said above, you should still be able to get some info off. Try going to the IT department. But what got me was:
[quote=KdjaCL[]( golf ball went tru it as they were practicing their swing)[/quote]

Jesus Christ, I can only assume you had them reported for termination for being: A) stupid enough to practice their swing indoors, and usinga ball!!!

testicle

If your own parents have house contents insurance, of the variety that allows you to insure items that are often removed from the house (i.e. engagement/wedding rings, or laptops ) you could claim off that. You won't get 100% off that either now mind, as they have an excess.

jhegarty

If he is over 18 then his parents don't have to pay anything....

Sundy

If he broke your laptop he should pay to replace it with a simlar spec laptop.

If you leave your car parked on the street and someone crashes into and writes it off, should they not pay for it because you left it somewhere that an accident could happen? he broke it, now he should pay for his carelessness

Overheal

I dont see how this falls into PI but yeah the files are grand; the lappy is kerput sadly. You can salvage the battery (hope ya bought a fancy one), the HDD and after that youre fairly screwed. You can get a cheap cable to plug into the hard drive and then you can read the data through any USB port.

nadimmu

Yeh i'll try the enclosure again, i just dont have a computer near me at this stage, the computer labs are closed on weekends, and the ones at the computer lab wont read it.
The laptop and its data are both important to me, i got that laptop for university, and now since i lost my data i cant hand in my assignment on time. i did have a back up but its an old one, i was going to back up my laptop at the end of that week but he fried it.
I even asked numurous people, they said he should fully pay for it, it was his fault for spilling water, how can it be my fault for putting it on the living room table, as his mother says that was my fault! i mean wtf, this is driving me around the bend

Overheal

I dont see how youre at fault for leaving it out. It wasnt a great idea granted but when he has already admitted to the damage, well, there you go. Sort out how much an identical spec laptop will cost you and work from there.

I assume youre not covered by accidental, then.

Faith

Boston wrote: »

You left it on the kitchen table. Your fault.

+1, tbh.

In first year, my friend spilt a glass of wine all over my laptop that was on my desk in my bedroom. It was completely destroyed and I bought the new one. Maybe she should have paid some, but I didn't force her to.

It's harsh, but let it be a lesson to you to be more careful. I won't let anyone near my laptop with liquid now, and I'm very cautious about where I leave it.

Ishindar

put the lappy in the hot press for a couple of days there is a decent chance it will work after that.

Sam Vimes

KdjaCL wrote: »

You left the laptop there so assumed they would use it, dont see why anyone should pay for something they didnt mean, if they did fair play.

so if i crash my car into yours and write it off, i don't have to pay a cent because i didn't mean it? score

axer

Faith wrote: »

In first year, my friend spilt a glass of wine all over my laptop that was on my desk in my bedroom. It was completely destroyed and I bought the new one. Maybe she should have paid some, but I didn't force her to.

In that case your friend should definitely have paid for the new laptop as it is reasonable to expect that you would put your laptop on your desk in your bedroom.

OP: It doesnt matter who you ask for opinion as I am sure they are all biased when they hear only your side of the story.

I think your room mate is partly responsible but not entirely. You are mostly responsible as a living room coffee table is not the place to put a laptop - it is a place where drinks and food are expected to be left on (hence the name) thus you brought about the risk of your laptop getting damaged yourself.

If I were you I would stop throwing a childish tantrum and realise that YOU, yes YOU, are the one that is mostly to blame. I guarantee you if you brought them to court the judge would definitely rule against you although he/she might give partially damages but there is no way in the world you would get 100%.

If I were you I would accept the 50% as your laptop probably wasn't even worth 50% of what you paid for it 9 months ago now. Go and price a similiar spec laptop now and check the price difference.

Follow other the other poster's advice about waiting for the harddrive to fully dry before trying it again.

Take it as a life lesson - always backup for data and never leave things in a place where they are likely to get damaged.