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[Naresomez]

I was wondering if I could connect my working laptop to my 'dead' (not able to charge) laptop with a male/male usb cable, and recover some files. Would that work? Or do both sources need to be powered for anything to occur?

[warhammer651]

They both need to be on I think. Unless you have voodoo magic. Then anything goes

[Mishy]

Take the battery out of the dead one then plug the laptop it into the mains (as if charging it up). You can use it as normal.

If that doesnt work hit it with a hammer. Im being serious, whenever my old computer stopped working i would hit it a few times and it magically started again.

[Naresomez]

Well, the problem is that both the input jack and adapter are gimped, so there's no charging or plugging... Oh well, I might do some testing on the 'morrow, thanks for the replies.

[G-Flex]

Wait, you expected to be able to get data off a computer that isn't actually powered? I'm not sure what to say to that except to think about the question again, because you probably know the answer.

Anyway, if being unable to power the laptop is the only problem, you can certainly still get data off the hard drive, provided you can remove it easily (a lot of laptops have the hard disks readily accessible) and have something else to put it in, like a USB hard drive enclosure.

[Total_Meltdown]

Wait, you expected to be able to get data off a computer that isn't actually powered? I'm not sure what to say to that except to think about the question again, because you probably know the answer.

Anyway, if being unable to power the laptop is the only problem, you can certainly still get data off the hard drive, provided you can remove it easily (a lot of laptops have the hard disks readily accessible) and have something else to put it in, like a USB hard drive enclosure.

There's actually a little-known feature of USB that lets you drain data out of the computer like water. You just plug the two systems together and turn the dead one on it's end and shake it, and the data will just flow out. Powering the system just lets the computer push the data out, like a pump. It's really cool, and really handy for just this kind of situation.

It might work with network cables too, if you have those. I don't remember exactly.

[Vester]

According to that theory, then Laptops = Etch-a-Sketch 2.0

[Naresomez]

Wait, you expected to be able to get data off a computer that isn't actually powered? I'm not sure what to say to that except to think about the question again, because you probably know the answer.

I assumed it wouldn't work, but I was checking with people who may have been a bit more knowledgable in this area. Apolologies of the retardationism.

[olemars]

Buy an external hard drive enclosure that matches the hd type in the dead laptop. Pretty much every decent electronics/computer store have these nowadays.

[Mishy]

You could break out the HD in your laptop then plug it into a PC and get the files that way. Im not sure if laptops have different HD cables or whatnot, though.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

He said he had another laptop, so conceivably he could just swap out the hard drive with the working one, and move things to an external drive of some sort. Of course, he probably couldn't boot up in windows doing that... A linux livedisk/liveusb would work, presumably, though...

[Mishy]

The reason i said 'break out' was literally because he would have to BREAK OUT the HD. I doubt he wants to smash up his working laptop but i see no reason why he shouldnt his old one(presuming its 'old' because he no longer needs it anymore).
Laptops are made compact, you generally cant just take bits out as needed.

[zchris13]

The hard drive itself tends to be quite modular.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

Yeah, with every laptop I've seen the hardrive is just attached by one or two screws on the bottom. You just pull out the battery, unscrew the harddrive case, and then do the same thing with the other. Or you could buy a cable to then just plug the old hardrive into a usb port, though I couldn't tell you what that cable is either...

[zchris13]

It's actually a whole enclosure, not just a cable.  It helps make the connection tighter.