My laptop died…but the hard drive lives (I can boot it and do a memeory test, though windows will not load).

I have a new laptop….

Could I swap the hard drive, copy much needed docs to a usb key then swap back???

pros? cons? warnings?

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend!
SB

Probably not, unless the two laptops are identical. The drivers on your old HDD will not match the new machine.

Best bet (presuming the old HDD is SATA and not the older IDE standard), is to get a HDD USB dock to read your old drive attached to your new laptop.

We’ve got one like this (but a single drive version) and find it very useful:

Thanks for the rapid response TuckerUK!!!
I’ll look into that option.

XP or 7? 7 is more likely to cope with the transplant, XP will almost certainly explode.

What’s up with the laptop? If Windows is pooched, moving it to a new machine won’t help.

I’ve got something similar to this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/dp/B001A5SK56

Advantage is it works with any drive type you care to throw at it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Proxima-Direct%C2%AE-External-Adapter-Protective/dp/B0098AF3U0/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1379029234&sr=1-1&keywords=sata+usb

Starting fresh is a good idea as you can avoid the accumulated crap that is on there.

Can you boot via USB/CD into Linux? (Knoppix/Ubuntu etc) that would allow you to copy files off if the HD is still spinning. Failing that a USB enclosure can normally be had for a few quid.