Getting files off dead laptop...

[or else you will DIE]

hi!

 

my old ADVENT laptop died on me about 5 months back. when i start it up i get the whole "Windows did not start successfully, please choose options below" and I get Normal mode, safe mode etc. None of these work.

 

Looking the problem up on the internet, it seems I need to re-install / repair XP. problem is, I didn't get the XP disk when I got the laptop.

 

so is there any other was of transferring the files from my old laptop? can i take out the memory and put it in another laptop or something? i have no idea.

 

thanks!

[Emasher]

Take out the hard drive and put it into and external drive case (order it off the net). Then just hook it up to the new laptop through USB and your set.

 

Memory or RAM doesn't actually store the files it just holds the ones your using so the computer can access them faster.

[Rummy]

Do you need any sort of special case for the hard drive, cos I thought laptops use physically smaller ones than big old desktops?

[Jimbob]

Thought laptop HDD were built into the laptop and were un-removable unless you take the laptop apart. Oh well, Emasher has the right idea follow that and you should be all fine.

[Emasher]

Do you need any sort of special case for the hard drive, cos I thought laptops use physically smaller ones than big old desktops?

 

Yes, I think Laptops are 2.5" rather than the 3.5" desktop Hard drives.

 

Thought laptop HDD were built into the laptop and were un-removable unless you take the laptop apart. Oh well, Emasher has the right idea follow that and you should be all fine.

 

Yes, you will have to take it apart.

 

You may also be able to do a fire wire pull if your old and new laptops support firewire and the hard drives are formated the right way. (you hook up the old laptop to the new one through the fire wire ports and then the old ones Hard Drive becomes like an external drive connected to the new laptop.) This will work for sure on a Mac but obviously its a PC your using so it does depend on your hardware (apple invented firewire).

 

Though it would probably better to just take the hard drive out as then you could have an external drive.

[RoadKill]

If it's an old school IDE drive, you'll need a 2.5 to 3.5" IDE cable, or, an external caddy that fits 2.5" IDE drives.

 

If your laptop is new enough to have a SATA drive, well, you're laughing, seeing as SATA connections are the same on laptop drives as they are desktop.

 

There may be some cock-in-ass piece of plastic adapter on the end of the drive that you need to remove to get at the standard IDE or SATA connector first.