*Recovering data from laptop harddrive*

[mattyd]

Recently my girlfriend's laptop "died", that is, it may be only the monitor but in any case, it is no longer functional.

My question is this: We would like to recover all data from the laptop hard drive without having to take the laptop to a shop to have it done.

We got her a brand new computer and would like to transfer data from the laptop disk to the new machine's disk. How do we do that?

I read that it could be done by attaching USB cables between both machines; this did not work - The new computer did not detect the old laptop drive.

Any help or a nudge in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Matty

[dimsums]

Get a USB Enclosure and put the dead laptop hard drive in it then plug that into a working computer.

[caperjack]

i use one like this one ,its my choice because it works with both 2.5 and 3.5 drives .
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5605253&CatId=2785

[mattyd]

Thanks for all the replies! :)

I am assuming there is a specific size needed to use with a laptop hard drive?

*I am more of a software guy and don't know so much about hardware.

Thanks, again, all.

[caperjack]

sorry ,i meant to add that the 2.5inch
was the size of a laptop hard drive

[amarkiii]

I also have a question about using an enclosure to recover data on a Dell XPS laptop hard drive. I asked this question on another board and they gave me a link to a specific enclosure on New Egg.

It turns out that it was the wrong enclosure. The laptop from Dell is circa 2005, and the hard drive connector end is different from the usual 44 ( I assume that is the number ) pin connector. Instead it can best be described as a plastic extension that is the width of the whole connector area with metal prongs on each side that would require a slotted connector receptacle to fit.

To quote another poster "There is a pin adapter on most hard drives for laptops...
"Dell uses a molded plastic adapter with more of a bayonette look.."

The hard drive is am IDE / ATA model.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[caperjack]

hi,the one you bought must be for a SATA hard drive , you need this one if you drive is a ide hard drive after you remove the dell adapter for the laptop .
http://www.amazon.com/External-Enclosure-Case-Blue-Laptop/dp/B000FNBYKW

this one is 2 sided and with with laptop and larger desktop ide drives ,not an enclosure just a cable
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1399171&CatId=3770