Power plug fried - how do I get hard drive data?

[mh4747]

My daughters HP laptop power plug is fried and can't get power to turn on. I would like to get her music and pictures off of the hard drive and put on my Apple laptop. How can I transfer this information without putting the hard drive in another computer? I'm new to site and novice at computer repair but would like to do this myself, if possible. Thanks.

 

[NetCablesPlus]

If you are unwilling to remove the hard drive, you will have to get power to the laptop somehow. What do you mean by '...power plug is fried...'? Is it the socket in the laptop that got fried or is it the external power cord/power supply? Do you know someone who has access to an identical machine that you could use the power cord from and/or get your battery charged on their laptop so that you could run the laptop long enough to get the files off?

 

[mh4747]

The socket itself is loose and won't accept a charge - the power cord is fine. I thought of your suggestion about finding a like machine and have asked the few people we know that have HP's. So far, I have not found anyone with same battery. I wonder if computer repair places normally have external battery chargers - that might be my next call. This might be a silly question, but can you get info off hard drive without putting it in another computer. If so, I can take hard drive out - just not sure how to proceed from that point. Thanks.

 

[halo71]

Have you thought about seeing what the cost of repair would be? If it is not "too" old, it would be worth fixing.

 

[mh4747]

I took it to a small repair shop - based on what I told them they think the motherboard may be damaged now, as well. It would cost approx 175 to find that out. The HP laptop is 3 years old. They did tell me they could transfer data for me for $99. We are not in a position to get her a new laptop right now - just need those pictures most importantly from her hard drive. She has most backed up but newest ones are not - 15 yr old takes a lot of pictures. Thanks.

 

[CCT]

Buy an external enclosure so it can be hooked to your USB or Firewire port - always a useful item anyway.

 

[mh4747]

Thanks - I am going to get one today!