How do I recover data?

I have a Dell laptop and the ac adaptor port no longer works. i had this problem before and in order to fix this i have to replace the whole motherboard for $400. I've done this once already and now it's happened again. I am not really willing to spend that kind of money.

I do not have any power going to the laptop. My question is: can i remove the hard drive from the laptop and transfer the data to an external hard drive somehow?

 

Another way to go about it if you have another open USB port. (one for your external drive if it is a USB and another one to use a adapter like this one. http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020&cat=CBL&cpc=CBLbsc
If you just wanted to get the files you had off the hard drive. Now if you wanted to use the drive as a backup after you got what you wanted off the drive you could put it in a 2.5 external case instead of using the USB to Sata-IDE adapter.