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Advice for smoke damage to electronics.

TankTank Registered User regular
edited February 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
Just last week, there was a small house fire at my house. The damage wasn't too bad, but there is a thin layer of soot on everything. Insurance is taking care of most of it, but it will take sometime.

I want to know what I can do to clean my extrenal hard drive on my PC since that is where a lot of my school work is.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Tank on

Posts

  • ZeonZeon Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Wipe it off.

    The actual hard drive is seal to the point where you could probably spill water on it, and as long as you let it dry off it would still work.

    If you want to be really thorough, open up the external case and wipe down everything inside too. You probably wont have to though, as the external case is probably sealed well enough as well.

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  • supabeastsupabeast Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Wipe it down, inside and out, with rubbing alcohol.

    supabeast on
  • TankTank Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    So what about the computer tower itself?

    Tank on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    supabeast wrote: »
    Wipe it down, inside and out, with rubbing alcohol.

    Just to be on the safe side I'd avoid using alcohol or cleaners on electronics

    nexuscrawler on
  • vonPoonBurGervonPoonBurGer Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    nexuscrawler wrote: »
    supabeast wrote: »
    Wipe it down, inside and out, with rubbing alcohol.
    Just to be on the safe side I'd avoid using alcohol or cleaners on electronics
    Cleaning products should definitely be avoided, but I'll vouch for the safety of rubbing alcohol in moderate quantities. I've used it many times to clean old thermal paste off of CPUs when I'm changing the heatsink, and have never suffered any ill effects. Just make sure you don't entirely soak the part, a little rubbing alcohol soaked into a soft cloth will do, and make sure you give it time to evaporate before doing anything with the part(s) you're cleaning.

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  • DaySleeperDaySleeper regular
    edited February 2007
    If you've got some compressed air, that can be useful, too. I'd recommend doing it outside though.

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Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum