So, my laptop crashed and is now an expensive doorstop. To make a long story short, the motherboard for my particular laptop has a known defect and my laptop suffered from it. I never got notice of a recall and missed out on said recall by 5 months. I was quite pissed when I found that out. Anyway, given the choice of trying to fix the laptop (which would necessitate replacing the mobo with another that would likely suffer from the same flaw), or buying a new computer, I decided to buy a new computer. However, I'm pretty sure that the hard drive in my laptop is still fine. I'm looking for something that will allow me to connect that HD to the new computer so I can get data off of it. I know such things exist, but I have no idea what exactly I'm supposed to be looking for. Can someone help me out?
How old is your laptop? If it's relatively recent and you have a SATA drive, you want a SATA to USB bridge or a SATA to USB dock (or if your new computer is a desktop you can just plug it in to an extra SATA port). If it's IDE you need IDE to USB bridge/dock.
Laptop is 3 years old. I haven't actually purchased a new computer yet since I'm moving in 10 days. I've been looking at desktops, since I don't think I need the mobility anymore and my main use for it is going to be gaming. Yes, I've looked at the build thread - need to see what would be cheaper, building my own or purchasing one and getting a discount thanks to the company I work for. Also, I feel a lot more confident with dealing with hardware issues on desktops than on laptops, in case something like this happens again. My old hard drive is indeed a SATA drive. So it sounds like I won't need a bridge?
Yeah, when you build your desktop you can just plug your laptop HD in, either permanently for extra storage or temporarily to grab the stuff off of it.
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Example (does both): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002
3DS FC: 0817-3759-2788
3DS FC: 0817-3759-2788