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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Jack Schofield

Getting data from a failed laptop's hard drive

I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo L1300 that doesn't work because the battery is dead and the AC adapter socket is broken. I have no way of powering it. I was going to replace it anyway, but was wondering if there was any way I could get the content from the hard drive.
Peter Faulkner

Laptops fail or get lost or stolen so it's important to have backups of your data. This easy to do with an external hard drive and Microsoft's free SyncToy. In this case, the hard drive is still fine. Remove the drive, find out what size and type it is (for ­example, it might be a 2.5in IDE drive), then buy the right kind of external enclosure case or caddy for it. A Google search will give you a good idea of what you need. Screw the laptop drive into the enclosure, connect it to another PC via the USB port, and you should be able to retrieve your data – Vista's Windows Easy Transfer program may help with this. You can sell the Amilo L1300 on eBay for "spares or repair".

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