After my Gateway laptop's power supply died on me last year (neither battery nor AC adapter would power it up), I got a USB enclosure for the 2.5" internal HDD for about $25 and was then easily able to xfer everything over to my new laptop.  Then, when done, I now had a small 60GB portable USB drive that fit nicely in my new laptop bag!  Works great for making backups and transfering files...

David - AZTech

> ------- Original Message -------
> From: "Lisa G." <lisasjunk@buppas.com>
> To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
> Sent: 1/9/07, 9:27:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [Az-Geocaching] orygun connie
> 
> I think most laptops have a video out where you can attach an external 
> monitor.  This may or may not help you depending on the nature of the 
> card failure, but it would be worth a shot.  A friend of mine recently 
> bought a 250G external USB drive for just over $100 (make sure the USB 
> versions match; I know my older laptop has USB 1.0, and a lot of newer 
> things use USB 2.0).  If that's affordable for you and you can get the 
> laptop to last long enough, you could transfer the data to one of these 
> yourself, and then you'd have a useful drive when you're done.
> 
> Good luck...computer failure sucks. :(
> 
> -Lisa
> 
> 
> Brian Casteel wrote:
> 
> >I guess I didn't realize it was a laptop, or I wouldn't have said anything
> >about on-board video, because integration is the only possibility for a
> >mobile computer.  If that's failing and it is this old, you will spend more
> >money for repair/replacement of the failed component, which would involve
> >replacing the entire motherboard to resolve the issue.  Buy a new laptop.  
> >
> >But in the meantime, I wouldn't use the laptop at all until you get a new
> >one, so you can see at least something on the screen when you're trying to
> >set it up to get your 'stuff' copied from it to the new one.  Many new
> >computers these days offer software that will pull the information for you
> >and put it back in place just like it was on the older computer, so look
> >into that when you're shopping.  There are other ways, but they would cost a
> >bit of money, which would involve having someone else pull and transfer the
> >data for you.
> >
> >Brian
> >  
> >
> 
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