Transfer data from a laptop with broken video card

Question

I have an HP Pavillion Laptop, running Windows Vista.

The video card is dead.

I need to access my data from a desktop computer running Windows XP SP2.

Solution 1

Pull the hard drive out of it and attach it to the desktop. It's probably SATA.

Solution 2

Data is stored on things called "Hard Drives" (on most computers anyway). These hard drives are inside computers; your laptop has one in it. The same applies for almost all computers. You want the data off the hard drive, the easiest way to do this is to remove the hard drive from the malfunctioning computer.

Remove the hard drive (HDD) and connect it to another computer using a SATA to USB cable, or if both computers support SATA, just plug away as all SATA drives use the same size cables.

Solution 3

Remove the hard disc and attach it to your working PC.

Comments

[WernerCD]

assuming SATA: amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/…

[David]

Remember @ChrisS there are two types of SATA. There is SATA and SATA II. Most computers that are relatively new use SATA II, before that, they used PATA (also known as IDE). Before that, they used SATA. All SATA is not the same. Overall, other than that part of the answer, you had a good answer.

[Chris S]

@David, SATA and SATA II drives and controllers will work with each other (generally, and at the lesser speed). It wasn't called PATA until SATA came around, back then it was just ATA (and was called IDE when it was first developed by WDC way back in the day when it was little more than a crude version of the ISA bus on a ribbon cable, though the name stuck long after it was changed). SATA drives can also be used on SAS controllers, though not the other way around. Considering his computer has Vista, it's likely a SATA drive.