The hard drive needs to be in a working computer.
Another option is to temporarily place the laptop hard drive in a desktop
computer.
This little tool can help:
http://www.startech.com/Product/Item...d=IDE4044&c=CA
--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org
"CMKUbLU304" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:95304F34-6F65-4AC1-9DD4-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I have a laptop with windows XP on it and windows failed to load on me one
> day...so now I have a new laptop because we couldn't figure out what was
> wrong with it. There was no indication that the hard drive was damaged, so
> I
> was told I could access the hard drive on my old laptop by using a 2 way
> USB
> cord and plug it into another, working computer. It would then act just
> like
> an external hard drive. Only when I did this, nothing happened. I thought
> maybe the old laptop had to be turned on for it to work, but when I tried
> the
> same thing with my home computer, which was on, it didn't work either.
> Does
> anybody know what's wrong or how else to access the hard drive from my old
> laptop?
> thanks.
> -Camille