Okay, so apparently my friend has an iPhone.
She apparently lent her iPhone to another friend, and they messed it up and erased all the contacts or something.

She had a backup of her contacts in itunes or something she said, on an old laptop, but that laptop now is broken. (I'll assume the HDD is still intact, but the screen and other parts are wasted so we have to take the drive out to get to any of the data.)

My question is, what file do we need to be looking for that would contain the iPhone contacts backup, and how on earth are we going to get another computer's installation of itunes to accept it so that the iPhone can sync with it?

I have no clue how iPhones work in this respect, because I don't have one. So I'd appreciate any help someone who DOES deal with them on a regular basis or has one could offer.

Try this:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/10/scann...-backup-files/