How can I save my files on my laptop that just died? The port for the power adapter is fried and the battery is dead so I have no way of physically saving the files on my hard drive myself. I'd really like to have them to put on my new laptop. I've heard about some USB case that you put your hard drive in and you can access all your files on another computer, but I want to know about how much does this cost, and is it a reliable method? Oh and also where can I get this done...cause I don't trust myself to take out the hard drive.

< class="additional-details">Additional Details 12 hours ago No, didn't short the hard drive, cause I could still turn it on afterward. It's just the port in the back started smoking and it won't connect to the AC adapter anymore. Then by the time I realized that, most of my battery life was gone. Hopefully you live near a MICROCENTER or there is a local PC repair shop closeby since CompUSA went out of business and is now I believe only mailorder

After removing your notebook PC hard drive, the converter I would use has various adapters to accomodate 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives and on the other end is a USB 2.0 adapter so it can hook into any good PC's USB port and that computer should detect it automatically. There are several manufactuers but most I have seen (seriously thinking about buying one for some time) are in the $20 range plus tax (and S&H if you mailorder)

Ultra USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA Cable Adapter is what you need if you’re going to connect hard drives, CD-ROM, combo drives, or DVD-RW drives to a PC with a USB 2.0 interface. The Ultra USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA cable adapter supports fast 480M data transfer rates and 52x CD-ROM speeds. And it comes with an AC adapter to supply your external power. Whether your system is ready for SATA or IDE, Ultra is ready for you with the USB 2.0 IDE/SATA cable adapter.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/Sear...

Hope the Above Info Helps and Best of Luck!

Also Some Other Worthy Advice: ALWAYS, ALWAYS COPY YOUR IMPORTANT FILES in more than one location like perhaps a USB 4.0GB Thumb Drive like $25 to $35 or say another Desktop PC Hard Drive bec Hard Drives Do Fail!