Advice needed on Lappy problem........

[ToBeMe]

A friend of my wife came to me just now with a Compaq Laptop and LOTS of problems..............

Her HD is about gone.......bad sectors, etc.. It won't even detect her floppy drive anymore and her USB mouse and her printer have ceased to work as well, but it still boots into Win 98. She is a Court Reporter and has a multitude of documents she HAS to recover........but, no way to back it up! The lappy is out of warranty and I don't have a Lappy to swap HD's to.

Anyone know if it is possible to connect a lappy HD directly to a regular tower system???? I used to have a guy working for me whom handled all laptop problems.........but, he's gone to the big city for more $$$$ and to be quite honest, I've nearly always avoided working on laptops......don't know why..........just never interested me, plus I keep busy on other problems.......

 

[sohcrates]

How about a network card to back it up over a network?

How about a direct connect via serial cable or USB?

Or, last but not least, there ARE adapters out there to connect laptop HDD's to tower systems....but I'd have to do some searches to find one that would work

 

[ToBeMe]

<< How about a network card to back it up over a network?

How about a direct connect via serial cable or USB?

Or, last but not least, there ARE adapters out there to connect laptop HDD's to tower systems....but I'd have to do some searches to find one that would work >>


Any idea where I might find one????? I'm very leary about any USB or serial connections whatsoever since the parrellel & USB have already failed........

Edit...........Oh, and I did consider networking it, but, there is no internal networking so a PC Card is about the only option and I wonder about setting up networking in an environment which is already failing............. She stressed very much the fact that this information must be saved so I feel I need to procede as safely as possible and with an option which has the best chance at success............

 

[sohcrates]

try this link

problem is, many laptop hard drives are manufacturer specific, so no guarantee a universal adapter would work

also try this

wow, this is the same thing, but only 7.99 !

 

[ToBeMe]

sohcrates;

I thank you very much! I also know of a young lady whom thanks you 10fold over me! The poor girl was nearly in tears! She's only had this job for 5 months and this was her first job in this field post college...............

I had no idea how that job worked but apparently most of the people whom do this are "sub-contractors" basicly and are responsible for buying and maintaining their own systems! She claims there are over 700 documents on the drive............. She's decided to back each one up to a CD after this! LOL!

Thanx again!