<p>Just spoke to s in Shanghai who shared (via a friend’s computer) that he doused his laptop with water about 2 days ago. Doesn’t look good. He’s followed the suggested steps.
I suggested that he ask around about a cheap/used lap- or desktop that he could purchase as a make-do for the next couple of months. The good? news is that it was old in computer years (about 3.5 years old). The bad news, well… you all know the bad news. He’ s in mourning.
If he were in the US, I could imagine how he might pick one up 2nd hand (or at least cheaply). Any of you know anything about the computer market in China, esp. for used computes?</p>
<p>I hope he had his data backed up.</p>
<p>I would think that since the vast majority of computers are made in China, there would be easy access to equipment. If he’s at school, maybe check with the IT dept for advice.</p>
<p>I just have to put a word in for backing up data. Once a month I export my favorites and cookies, outlook mail files, and My Document folder and make a backup I keep in a fireproof box. If you keep all your subfolders under one main folder, it makes backing up really easy. </p>
<p>Also, in a ideal world you would have an offsite backup as well. </p>
<p>I only wish my employer would keep our data backed up.
I have personally lost weeks of data because their servers crashed and the backups were several weeks old. That is inexcusable, but trust me it happened (and this is a multi-billion $$ business). We’re not allowed to backup our own data (because of privacy/theft concerns) as I have offered to do (on my own time and dime)</p>
<p>Does he have a Dell? With their accident insurance, they’ll basically replace any computer. My sister’s computer broke while studying abroad in Mexico, and it was stolen while she was working in Africa. I think she just made use of internet cafes while the computer was off to be fixed in Mexico, and in Africa she looked into getting it replaced by the company (it was a strange situation; the place she was staying in paid for a new computer). </p>
<p>How long is he going to be in China for? Could he just use internet cafes for now and buy a new computer in the mean time, online or otherwise? I think it makes more sense for him to buy a brand new computer that he can use for the next couple of years than for him to buy a used laptop for the short term and then presumably buy a new one back home.</p>
<p>craigslist is in Shanghai as well as most other cities in the world.</p>
<p>There’s a big expat community in Shanghai. He should find the boards (at social clubs, schools, etc) where expats post their moving sale lists. Everyone dumps their things before they repatriate!</p>
<p>I’ll tell him what I’ve learned. I suspect that (despite my frequent sage advice) he has not backed up much of anything. Well, that’s not exactly true. He did say all of his music has been copied to his ipod, and one of his friends has copies of all the pics he’s taken in Shanghai.<br>
He has/had a mac., but I don’t know if we bought any protection beyond 3 yrs, nor if accident protection was part of it.
I figured that anything imported would be costly in terms of import tax, and buying from a Chinese Co. might cause potential problems with service later (thus the used idea).</p>
<p>I see this is an old thread but I live in Shanghai and had a computer die but had a lot of the data recovered. I can send you the address details of the place I took it - very inexpensive compared to the US! Made me a little nervous to have a Chinese mom and pop shop retrieve all the data from my hard drive but so far no problems.
There are lots of reputable places to buy computers in Shanghai though I suspect that macs are much more expensive than in the US.</p>