How to recover photos from a dead laptop

I could really use some help here. Basically, my HP laptop just bit the dust—motherboard is completely fried...
The main issue is I’ve got a ton of photos on there that I desperately need to save. Does anyone know the easiest way to go about this, or even if it's actually possible at this point?
I have another laptop that’s working fine, so I was wondering if there's any way to link them up so I can pull those files off the dead one and onto the new one? Thanks in advance.

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Just grab an external HDD enclosure on eBay or check out somewhere like Newegg, pull the drive out of your old laptop, pop it in the case, plug it back into the laptop, and move everything over.

Thanks for the help. Quick question though: once I swap the hard drive into the new case, is it going to force me to reformat everything again? And if it does, is there any kind of workaround to bypass that?

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Nicholas Sanchez21 said:I could really use a little help here—so, basically, I’ve got an HP laptop where the motherboard just completely kicked the bucket...
I've got some photos on there that I really want to save... does anyone know the easiest way to go about this, or if it's even possible at all?
I've actually got another laptop that’s still running—so I was wondering if there's any way to link them up... just so I can pull all my photos off this broken one and move them over to the new one. Any ideas?... thanks!

Edward Mitchell50 said:Just grab an external HDD enclosure on eBay or check out somewhere like Newegg—it's super easy. Just pull the hard drive out of your old laptop, slide it into the case, plug it back into your current machine, and you're good to go... simple enough.

Look, don't try to tackle this solo if you aren't 100% sure what you're doing—seriously... just set that beat-up old laptop aside for now. Once these restrictions ease up and things get back to normal, grab both the old machine and the new one and head down to any local computer repair shop. You can find some pros who actually know their stuff, and they'll probably fix everything for basically the cost of a cheap HDD tray... it's just not worth the headache.

And one more thing—how am I supposed to figure out which HDD enclosure I actually need? Is it just a matter of checking if it's 2.5" or 3.5", or am I totally off base here?

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Rachel Brooks63 said:Don't go hacking away at it if you don't actually know what you're doing. Just set that junker laptop aside for now. Once things settle down and we can get back to normal life, grab both the old machine and the new one and take them to any local computer repair shop. For the price of a cheap HDD enclosure, some pros who actually know their stuff will just handle the whole thing for you.

Thanks for the advice! Honestly, I feel like I could probably tackle this myself—or at least, I’d really love to try so I can actually learn something for once. As far as pulling the drive out and popping it into an external case goes, I think I can manage that part. My only real worry is whether I'll be forced to format the disk afterward. If that happens, I'm totally screwed.

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If you can get your hands on a desktop—maybe borrow an old PC from a buddy—you could actually just plug directly into an open SATA port. If you’ve got the cables handy, just hook up the power and the SATA line, boot it up, and you can dump everything you need onto a thumb drive. Then, you can just slide those files right onto your new laptop without ever having to crack the casing open.

ps: Regarding that question about formatting the drive: if a prompt pops up asking if you want to format, just hit NO. It won't even start the process unless you give it the green light.

Nicholas Sanchez21 said:Thanks for the tip! Honestly, I think I could probably handle this myself... or at least I’d prefer to try so I actually learn something. Taking the hard drive out of the old laptop and slapping it into an enclosure? Yeah, I can manage that. I'm just a little worried about whether it'll force me to format the drive or something. If it does, I'm totally screwed.

Laptop drives are always 2.5"
but a 3.5" desktop enclosure will take a smaller drive just fine.

The real headache is whether you're dealing with an ancient machine. Old laptops used PATA drives, which means you'd have to hunt down a specific type of enclosure.
Most modern stuff uses SATA though.

You definitely won't need to format it. You just pop it into the external housing, plug that into the USB port on your new laptop, and it should show up just like any other external drive.

BUT—and this is a big but—the system might ask you a few questions when you first boot it up. There's always that tiny risk of clicking the wrong thing and accidentally wiping everything.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=2.5+inch+hard+drive+enclosure You might want to look for something similar to this... Since we're dealing with a 2.5-inch hard drive, all you really need is an adapter to plug it into a USB port—then you can just transfer your important files over. Smaller drives can usually pull enough power directly from the USB port, so you shouldn't need any extra power supplies. Maybe take a quick look on eBay or Craigslist to see if there's anyone local nearby? It might be easier to meet up in person and get it sorted out quickly rather than waiting for something to arrive in the mail. p.s. How old is this laptop, anyway? It would probably be best to pop the drive out of the broken machine and snap a photo for us—if it’s worth the effort (and I'm assuming it is, unless you're rocking a 15-year-old laptop, in which case it's probably toast) then just grab that cheap adapter right away.

Well, I've got the disc right here!
I’m wondering if I could actually pull this off using an eSATA enclosure that has its own external power supply. I’ve got one sitting around from back in the day when I used it for my old DirecTV receiver.
If I pop the disc into the enclosure from my old laptop and then hook it up to the new one, would that work?

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Rachel Brooks63 said:Seriously, don't try to DIY this if you aren't 100% sure what you're doing! Just set that broken laptop aside for now. Once things settle down and we can get back to our normal routines, grab both the old machine and the new one and head over to a local computer repair shop... there are plenty of pros out there who can swap that HDD tray for you for basically nothing.

I totally agree with that advice. The exact same thing happened to me last year, and they managed to save every single one of my files just like that! They even turned that little tray into an external hard drive for me, and it works perfectly fine today.

And honestly, it didn't cost me much at all...

wearymason4 said:If you can get your hands on a desktop—maybe borrow a buddy's old rig if yours is totally dead—you could technically just plug into an open SATA port. You know, just run the power and data cables out there in the open air, boot it up, and move your stuff over to a thumb drive or whatever.

So, if you're looking for a quick fix to get a SATA hard drive connected to a tower temporarily... why not just unplug the DVD drive? Swap the HDD into its spot, clone everything, then put the optical drive back where it was.
In that scenario, you wouldn't even need any extra cables.

Thanks for the assist, everyone. Finally got that issue with the watch case sorted out...

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