Ask HN: Anyone have an older Macbook that you're willing to sell cheaply?

[optimus]

My hard drive crashed and my optical drive stopped working. I lost some unbacked-up data, and I cracked something on the motherboard while trying to diagnose the problem with the optical drive, resulting in the display not working.

I don't have the funds for a new computer so, as a long-shot, I'm wondering if anyone here has a Macbook that's not in use and lying around that you're willing to sell for a cheap price?

My email is in my profile if anyone can help out.

[mrfancypants]

You'd best post the model number (found on the underside, near the hinge) - you can't just swap out Apple motherboards and expect everything to work, in my experience.

If the data's urgently required, you can probably grab a cheap [PS]ATA-to-usb adaptor and mount the volume on another machine running osx (or linux).

Good luck...

[bnejad]

I'd check craiglist, you can find some very cheap laptops(macbooks included).

[sejje]

If any of them didn't make the trip to Africa!

I posted a cheap Toshiba laptop recently and had about 40 requests to ship it to Africa, all offering more than my asking price

[bnejad]

Yeah, that's pretty common craigslist bot spam. If OP is truly desperate he can find a workable laptop for fairly cheap.