Recover files from laptop hard drive

[liquidsense]

My parents' very old laptop crapped out over the weekend. I am wondering what I need to recover the files on the HD.

Somewhere in my closet, I have a case for a 2.5" HD. I'm pretty sure I can just take the laptop HD and pop it into the case. And of course, the case will plug into the recovering PC via USB. But, will the files just pop up in the laptop HD directory like it would if it were just a basic storage HD? I'm just not sure what will happen since the laptop HD was obviously not used for storage (i.e., it had an operating system on it).

Hopefully, by now, whoever is reading this realizes that I am very novice when it comes to these types of things. Any kind of guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[paul878]

Yes it will pop up when you plug it in, but you might have to take ownership of all files before you can copy it over.

 

[corkyg]

The OS will be of little or no use in a different computer. As Paul878 says, you may have to take control, but they should all be available. They should be able to recover any data files, emails, etc. A new computer will usually come with a new OS.