Fallen, frozen and reformatted

At a luncheon in Palm Springs, Calif., computer training consultant Steve Tilton had propped his Toshiba Satellite Pro notebook computer on a table when the unthinkable happened.

“A waiter came by and knocked the computer clean off the table,” he ecalls. “It fell on its side to the concrete floor and then flopped down onto its back.”

When Tilton lifted the fallen laptop, something even more implausible happened. The Libertyville, Ill.-based business traveler put the machine back on to the table, pushed the reset button and “It booted right up. I couldn’t believe it,” he says.

Happy endings aren’t always in order for crashed portables. Take the case of Tilton’s friend, who tapped the brakes on her car to avoid an animal in the road and sent her laptop – also a Toshiba Satellite Pro – careening onto the carpeted car floor. “The thing wouldn’t start up,” remembers Tilton. “They said the hard drive had been damaged.”

According to data recovery experts DiskDoctor in West Palm Beach, Fla., 32 percent of computer data is lost because of human error. That figure includes, but isn’t limited to, notebooks being dropped, mishandled or exposed to the elements. Check out your portable’s owner manual and you’ll find the unit’s temperature threshold somewhere in the fine print. Typically, the operating limit for a laptop on the high end is about 95 degrees and 140 degrees for storage. Take it to a colder climate, like I did on a recent trip, and you’ll turn your computer into a Popsicle.

Last winter, I had to drive from Annapolis, Md., to New York on what I’m certain was one of the coldest days of the year. Factoring in the wind-chill, the temperatures must have plunged well below zero, and perhaps much, much lower. I foolishly stored my notebook in my car overnight when I stopped over at a friend’s house in Princeton, N.J., forgetting that it would get icier than a deep-freeze after dark.

The next morning, I took the computer into a diner to catch up on some correspondence, and it wouldn’t start. The keyboard felt very cold to the touch and the screen looked dark and gelatinous. My heart just about stopped. My mouth went dry. I thought: “This is it. I’ve just destroyed a $3,500 laptop!”

“Maybe it’ll thaw out?” my friend suggested.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Computers don’t thaw out,” I replied.

But I was wrong, thank goodness. Not even 10 minutes later, my laptop had somehow unfrozen itself and was operating like nothing ever happened. I couldn’t have been happier and I swore that I would never, ever, leave my computer in the trunk of my car as long as I write a technology column.

Steven Filippo, a manager at DiskDoctor, says the most common human-error related problems aren’t users pushing their machines to the limit. It isn’t even the falls that do computer in.

“It’s people formatting a disk when they aren’t supposed to, or deleting files that they didn’t want to,” he says. “I would say one of the biggest mistakes is users who have a backup system but don¹t use it. A backup system is no good unless you use it.”

Given all that we know about how our laptops get damaged on the road, I think we can broadly categorize the accidents as follows:

Spills and Jolts. That would be people like Tilton dropping his computer from a table. I think that for frequent travelers, this kind of incident is more common than for other laptop users, including students who take their computers to class. While I researched this story, I came across some numbers that suggested laptops in the classroom don’t break as commonly as you’d expect.

External Forces. Cold and heat are just one way a portable can get damaged. Remember magnets? I haven’t written about those in a while, but they’re still out there. Possibly the worst thing about these forces is that they often destroy our machines silently. I almost prefer the suddenness of a spill.

Foreign Objects. I give these their own category because they’re so nefarious that they deserve their own category. I’m talking about liquids – hot coffee, soda, and even water — that enter your keyboard and disable your unit. I’ve been fortunate to have kept my drinks away from my laptop, but I know others out there haven’t been.

Now, here’s my question to you: Which of these three things has happened to you? Am I missing a category? Your vote counts! I’m planning to follow up this story soon, and your war stories will help shape the column. E-mail me so that I can include your thoughts in the article.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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