Data Recovery Case File · Mac & Apple Ecosystem · Two Machines, Two Jobs
Start With the Easy One
Her enquiry treats two machines as one problem and they are not. "I have two very old laptops — one last used around 2010 and another last used around 2013. Both no longer turn on. The first was dropped in a pool years ago and the second just stopped working a few years ago. I am desperate to recover the photos and videos off these." Those are entirely different cases with entirely different prospects, and one of them is probably an afternoon's work while the other is not — which decides where to begin.
| Media | Two laptop internal drives of 2010 and 2013 vintage — one machine subjected to full liquid immersion some years previously, one having ceased functioning without incident; both non-starting |
| Reported situation | Two laptops of approximately 2010 and 2013 · neither powering on · one immersed in a swimming pool some years previously · the other ceasing to function without a described incident · photographs and video required from both · machines stored since |
| Fault class | Two distinct cases — non-immersed machine with removable storage likely unaffected; immersed machine requiring establishment of whether liquid reached the drive |
| Equipment used | Non-immersed machine addressed first · both drives removed and read independently of their machines · immersed drive examined for corrosion at the connector and board before any power · imaged write-blocked · contents delivered together |
The decode: why they are separate jobs, and the order
Why the second machine is probably straightforward: a laptop of that era carries an ordinary removable drive, and a machine that stopped working without an incident most often has a power fault, a board fault, or a failed system — none of which touch the storage. The drive comes out with a screwdriver and reads in an inexpensive caddy on any modern computer. That is genuinely a job for an afternoon, and if the photographs are on it, this ends there.
Why it should be done first: because it is cheap, quick and might answer everything. Old machines accumulate copies — material migrated between them, duplicated during upgrades, or backed up from one to the other. Establishing what is on the easy machine defines what is genuinely missing, and it is entirely possible that most of what she wants is on the drive that comes out in five minutes.
Why the pool machine is a different proposition: full immersion is the most damaging liquid event there is, and pool water is worse than tap water — chlorinated, chemically treated, and conductive. Everything the water reached began corroding at that moment and has continued for years, unpowered, in whatever residue dried onto it.
The question that decides that machine, and it has a real answer: whether the liquid reached the drive or only the board. A laptop drive of that generation sits in its own bay, often shielded, and immersion does not guarantee the drive was wetted. If the board took the water and the drive did not, the drive is fine — removable, readable, and the machine's condition irrelevant. If the drive itself was immersed, the corrosion is on its connector and its own board, which is component-level work.
Why the years since matter here specifically: corrosion continues slowly even unpowered, and dried residue stays conductive and hygroscopic. This is the one fault class in the archive where waiting has a compounding physical cost — so if any of it is going to be attempted, the pool machine is the one where delay is expensive.
What must not happen to either: no attempt to charge or power them. On the immersed machine, voltage across a contaminated board drives corrosion actively, and a decade of dried residue is exactly the wrong thing to energise.
What to expect on delivery: the contents of both, combined and de-duplicated, since material from two machines of overlapping years will contain a great deal of the same thing.
On the bench
The non-immersed machine was addressed first — a laptop of that generation carrying ordinary removable storage, and a machine that stopped without an incident most often failing at the power or system level rather than the drive, so the cheap job defines what is genuinely missing before the expensive one is quoted. Both drives were read independently of their machines. The immersed drive was examined for corrosion at the connector and board before any power, since voltage across dried conductive residue drives corrosion actively. Both were imaged write-blocked and contents delivered together.
The outcome
The straightforward machine addressed first, the immersed drive examined before any power and both sets of contents delivered together. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a drive has to be opened, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode: these are two jobs, not one. A machine that stopped without an incident usually has a fault that never touched its drive, which comes out and reads in a caddy — do that first, because it is cheap and may answer everything. The immersed machine turns on whether the water reached the drive or only the board.
Two old machines holding the same photographs
Start with the one that simply stopped — it's the cheap job and it may answer everything. A laptop of that era has an ordinary removable drive, and a machine that failed without an incident usually has a power or board problem that never touched its storage, so the drive comes out with a screwdriver and reads in an inexpensive caddy. Old machines also accumulate copies of each other, so what you find there may define what's genuinely missing from the other. Don't power or charge the machine that went in the water. Pool water is chlorinated and conductive, corrosion has been running since the day it happened, and voltage across dried residue drives it actively. The question there is whether the liquid reached the drive or only the board.
Start with the simpler one — call Guildford Data Recovery on 01483 901310; drives read independently of their machines, immersed hardware examined before any power, contents delivered together.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.