how to transfer data from old laptop that has no screen to new one

Robantwerp

Estimable
Jan 19, 2016
2
0
4,510
my son ruined the screen of my 10y old laptop for it being very slow
to repair the screen would almost cost me a brand new laptop
so i rather buy a new one but would like to transfer what i want from the old one.
my old laptop still works but I cannot see anything and it would be odd to buy just a screen and connect the old one to it as I need to open it to type.
i believe i might only need a ethernet or lan cable to connect both ?
 
Solution
With no internal screen and no option for an external screen, your easiest option may be to purchase a SATA/PATA-to-USB adapter. You will need to remove the laptop's hard drive, but said adapter will allow you to connect the drive to another computer via USB. The computer will see the hard drive as a mass storage device, then you can browse the contents of the drive and copy + paste whatever you need from that drive to the computer it's connected to (or to another device connected to the computer).

Xttony

Distinguished
Mar 4, 2011
17
0
18,570
There are a few things that you can do
Assuming you have a PATA [old] drive
1. You can use an external hard drive that can backup your data just by plugging the drive into the USB port [ only if you had auto run enabled on your laptop]
2. Plug a monitor in your old laptop and transfer your data to your new laptop by external storage.
If you have a SATA [newer used by almost all new laptops] drive
Including the above two options you can do the following
Remove the hard drive from the laptop and connect the drive using an external drive connector to your new laptop and copy everything.

Or you can take it to a repair shop.
 
With no internal screen and no option for an external screen, your easiest option may be to purchase a SATA/PATA-to-USB adapter. You will need to remove the laptop's hard drive, but said adapter will allow you to connect the drive to another computer via USB. The computer will see the hard drive as a mass storage device, then you can browse the contents of the drive and copy + paste whatever you need from that drive to the computer it's connected to (or to another device connected to the computer).
 
Solution