Copying Hard drive

[Ron Burgundy]

This may be a simple question for the tech heads. I have a Dell XPS laptop which has a damaged motherboard and i will need the data off the hard drive. Is it possible to get the programs and files off the hard drive and onto an external hard drive, bearing in mind i cannot start my current laptop.

Any suggestions?

[Psyber]

If the hard drive is undamaged itself you should be able to just remove it and then put it back when the new mobo has been installed.
You can also take it out and install it as a secondary drive in another computer and copy files from it to the main drive or an external drive that way.
You could put it in an external case and use it as an external drive to copy from to a new drive.
If the drive itself is damaged you may need someone with the technical equipment and skills to get the data off.

[Dissident]

Data, yes.
Programs, probably not.

Programs require the original install files (usually) to then be reinstalled on a new system.

[Psyber]

Data, yes.
Programs, probably not.
Programs require the original install files (usually) to then be reinstalled on a new system.

Yes, I was thinking data only.
In the old days, up to the early 1990s, you could copy programmes across too, but that made software piracy too easy...

[Ron Burgundy]

Cheers Guys, I ordered a USB Caddy yesterday so will find out if i can get the data off tomorrow. If not i guess it will be going to an expert to extract the data. Fortunately I dont think i will need any programs, I have most that can be re-installed by disk.