How to Get Information From an Old Dead Computer to New Laptop Computer

Your computer is probably the storage place for years worth of important files, folders and documents. As a computer user, you should regularly create a backup of important pictures, files, and videos. You should ideally create two different backups and keep them on external hard drives. Since most of us don't even think about a backup until the PC dies, it may be too late for that. If you've lost some data on a dead computer, not to worry--that data can often be extracted with a little bit of work.

Things You'll Need

• USB universal drive adapter

Instructions

1. Locate the hard drive. Make sure the computer is turned off and unscrew the case to the back of the computer. Find the hard drive, a small rectangular component about 6 inches long and 1 inch thick.

2. Extract the hard drive from your dead computer. Fonerbooks.com informs us that the hard drive is usually mounted with screws in a fixed cage, and the hard drive will need to be unscrewed. After unscrewing the hard drive, remove or unplug the ribbon cable.

3. Popular Mechanics now advises us to use the USB universal drive adapter to plug the hard drive into the new computer. Your computer might take a few seconds to recognize the new hard drive.

4. Open up "My Computer" and select the newly added icon representing the new hard drive.

5. If your computer can't recognize the hard drive, you can take the hard drive to a hard drive shop for repair. The process may be costly, so be forewarned.

References

• Foner Books: Replacing a Hard Drive
• Popular Mechanics: How to Recover Data From a Dead Hard Drive