Get all files from Dead Inspiron Laptop

Anyone help me I am so stranded I really don't know what to do and yes its end of school and term papers are due... My Dell Inspiron 4000 Windows Me will not power up upon opening it I realized there was a power disconnection in short, something I cannot fix and don't intend to as this is an old puter. My question is how can I transfer all my files from this non powering laptop to my desktop? I have heard people talk of cable connecting hard drives and all that fun stuff can someone provide specific information as to what kind of cable I need to get and from where (if I am lucky) to transfer all the files from the Laptop to the desktop.

 

You have options if the laptop will turn on but just not boot for recovering files - maybe/hopefully.

If it refuses to power up at all, you will pretty much need to remove the hard drive and connect it to your desktop. I'm not sure about the drive in the laptop but I'm betting one of the hardware experts here will so I'm moving this to the hardware section.

Networking would have been appropriate if the laptop had powered up but even then, attaching the Hd to a good PC is a better option if it can be done.

 

Thanks a Bunch Newt, actually I have about 30 minutes of battery power left and I am not sure if this will be enough to transfer all my files, either way do you mind advising on the networking, because I have wireless both the laptop and desktop but I am unable to find the either computer when using my wireless router.

 

What kind of file sizes are we talking here?

In my experience using wifi to transfer files on laptops chews through the battery like nothing else, since not only are you accessing the hard drive but your also running a power-hungry radio. No to mention wi-fi isn’t very fast, so unless you're talking less than several megabytes of data, I doubt you'll get much from the laptop before it dies on you.

I think the easiest option for you would be go out any buy a 2.5" IDE adaptor (Like this) and plug it in to a spare IDE connector in your computer, providing the drives slave/master jumpers are set correctly (or to auto if the drives controller supports it) your laptop drive will simply appear as a new HDD on your system for you to do as you wish with it.

 

Thanks

Decoder, thanks a bunch I am on my way to buy. I didn't understand the jumper part but it shouldn't be rocket science.
Thanks for the detail information really helps hopefull I will share my knowledge on this great site.