Retrieving data from a broken laptop

[SWEngineer]

I have a HP Pavillon dv7 laptop. The screen went black, and when connected to an external monitor, it didn't work. Does that mean that the issue is from the motherboard.

If that is the case, the most important thing here is, can I retrieve the information stored on the hard disk? How can this be done with such circumstance?

Thanks.

[JorgeM]

Does that mean that the issue is from the motherboard.

hard to say based on the info you provided. Could be motherboard related, could power related if the device isnt powering on.

can I retrieve the information stored on the hard disk?

If you open the laptop (screws should be on the bottom of the device), or in some laptops, just remove the cover so you can expose the hard drive, remove it and you can connect it to a working PC. The easiest way is for you to purchase an USB to PATA/SATA IDE interface. They cost about $20 US. This device will allow you to connect different hard drives via USB so that you can access the drives from a working PC. In some cases, the drive may be seen as foreign from the computer you plug it into so you may have to launch disk management console and import the drive. Once your computer recognizes the drive, you can copy your files off the disk.

[rubberman]

Agree with Jorge with one big caveat - if the drive is encrypted you may not be able to access the data without serious effort, if at all. My company uses full disc encryption, but we use McAfee tools to do it, and they have recovery keys if needed for just such reasons. I'm not saying that McAfee tools are the best, just that they can help deal with recovering data when an encrypted system fails.