Laptop vid card died, need to get files from HDD

[skorman00]

So my laptop's video card died, and of course I have backed up my files in a while.

I tried hooking up a crossover between my laptop and another machine, but I can't simply //pcname to it. I don't have any kind of security turned on on the laptop, so I wouldn't think getting into it would be terribly hard. I'd like to avoid finding a laptop that I can swap HDD's with.

Any ideas?

[filker0]

There are cables/cases that allow you to plug a laptop drive in and talk to it over USB or firewire. There are also adapters that allow you to plug the laptop drives in to IDE controllers. I've used both, and both work well.

Unfortunately, both of these solutions require extracting the hard drive from your broken laptop.

Another option would be a Linux "Live" CD that is set up to talk to a terminal (or PC acting as a terminal) connected through the com port as its console rather than using the built-in keyboard/video.

I don't know if any of this will help, but they're ideas.

[anonytmouse]

What OS is your laptop running. If running XP (Pro, not sure about Home) or 2000 and connected to the network, you can connect using '\\PCNAME\C$'.

[skorman00]

The laptop is running xp, but \\pcname\c$ doesn't get me there (I accidently said // in my post).

I will try out the Linux Live CD suggestion if nothing else comes up.

Thank you both.

[lightatdawn]

Are you sure its the vid card, not simply the monitor? Have you tried plugging a desktop monitor into it (this allowing you to configure a network easily or whatnot)?

You could also create a network setup disk using the Network Setup Wizard from another machine. I've never done this but i assume there are proably on a very few keystrokes required to complete the setup, which you may be able to observe on your second machine and replicate in order "blindly" on your laptop.

[skorman00]

I tried another monitor, that's how I know its the vid card.

[filker0]

The laptop is running xp, but \\pcname\c$ doesn't get me there (I accidently said // in my post).

I will try out the Linux Live CD suggestion if nothing else comes up.

Thank you both.

You're quite welcome.

If you go with the Live CD approach, make sure it's set up to use a serial console (even if you have to type something like "boot console=serial" or some such blind on the laptop keyboard during the boot process) and also that it includes support for NTFS file systems (read-only, usually). This should be enough to rescue your files.

Good luck.