As you probably already know by now, my laptop's just about on it's last legs, and I must prepare for the worst. However, being the sentimental bunny I am, I simply cannot even contemplate losing my files. I have far too many music files, as well as plenty of pictures and videos that are all very dear to me. I have been told by someone clever that I can take my hard drive out of my laptop (and sure enough, after he downloaded my service manual and read through it copiously, he said that there should be a four screw panel where my hard drive is, and he was right!). But what do I have to do to this hard drive in order to get the files onto my new laptop, when I get one?
I wouldn't suggest taking out the hard drive. You'd have to hook it back up to something to transfer files. I'd recommend getting a new computer and a transfer cable and using the operating systems' file transfer wizard, or buying a portable hard drive to back up your files and then transfer it onto the new computer when you buy it later. I'd go with the second option, since you'd have a drive to backup your new computer on in case the hard drive on that fails. They're pretty cheap and it's a good idea to always have a backup.
Thing is, I won't be able to get to my files. My laptop won't even let Windows load, so if I want my files, I have no choice but to manually remove the hard drive.
You can try creating a Linux live-cd, that should enable you to boot and put your files on a USB-disk
www.ubuntu.com you can download it there, theres a guide on that site aswell. But you have to burn it as an image on a cd, then make ur pc boot from it, it might not work. For example if the HDD is like.. dead.. nothing can be read from it that easy.
What I would do if I were you, is take it to a professional and see what that person says about saving your files. A professional will most likely know what to do to save your files. They understand not wanting to loose everything- that would be horrible! But I'm sure someone who works with computers for a living will have a more than capable suggestion for you
Better still woulb be if you have an external hdd, or an MP3 player with a tone of storage. Then run the ubuntu live cd. that way, you have enough space to do that, the other thing is, you could put damn small linux on a pendrive, and boot from that. That doesn't even require burning a cd.
That linux thingy turned me into a geek. That and the maze screensaver on windows 95(hell yes, I got that bitch on vista).
