How Tough is Your Laptop?

Can it survive being run over by a VW? Mine can, and did. Here's the story. Mom and I were on our annual fall shopping trip, this time retuning to the VT Hand Crafters Assoc. show in Burlington. I usually bring the compy for referencing things and Googling locations, especially since most hotels have free wifi now.

Sunday morning, we had checked out of the Super 8 in S. Burlington, headed over to the Marriot/UVM Conference Center for the Craft Show, and I was packing the car. I got distracted by a conversation with some fellow Massachusetts tourists in the parking lot, and apparently let the laptop fall off the rear seat and onto the blacktop (or I never picked it up off the ground, where I had deposited my luggage while unlocking Mom's car - I don't honestly remember). I didn't realize this until Mom exclaimed, sounding awfully distraught, "Your computer!" after backing out of the parking space.

There was my laptop case, lying alongside the parking space, out of which we'd recently backed.

Oh, lord.

I retrieved the laptop case, and opened it up with some trepidation. The damage, whatever it was, was done, and the fault was squarely mine. I felt pretty sick about it, to tell the truth, but what was feeling bad going to do, right? To my surprise, it was whole. Whole, and it powered up! In the end, the screen was shot, and the cd-rom drive was crushed, but every scrap of information was safe, and the computer was otherwise fully functional. I used it for a week, carefully backed up to my external drive, hooked up to our flatscreen tv, but this proved to be a huge hassle, so I ended up biting the bullet and buying a new one.

I figured I stick with Mac, though, since they seem to make a pretty tough machine.