Data recovery from dead laptop

My laptop power supply is gone. The cost for repairs and new parts won't justify fixing the system (A Dell Inspiron 1501 - utter trash). I've decided to just save some pennies and buy something new. However there are files on the hard drive that are work related and I would really like to get them.

Can someone offer suggestions on ways to get files? Mostly music, pictures, word documents. That kind of thing. What I would like to get and think might prove more difficult are Firefox favorites and settings and internet explorer favorites. As well as some save data for a computer game.

Some basics so you know what I have at my disposal:

The laptop ran windows vista. We have a desktop pc using Windows XP. I think it has a second hard drive bay, but I'm not sure. (Dell dimension E510)

All I ask is PLEASE don't send me to search or get help from Dell. I've been attempting this task for the past few days and come up fruitless, angry and frustrated! We had one good computer from them, and every purchase ever since has been horrible, with even worse customer service experiences. I won't ever give them any of my business again.

Anyway, finally.. if there is a device that I can plug into one computer and to another to get the data, that would be lovely. The hitch would be the laptop would have to remain off because turning it on is impossible.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings. I'm a little out of sorts after dealing with dead end run arounds. (And just tired of dealing with computer problem after computer problem for near a year)

Thanks in advance

 

Im not sure about what new parts you might need, but the simplest way would be buy a new or used power supply. ed

 

I think the best thing to do if your scraping the laptop is get yourself a USB hard drive caddy the type that takes laptop hard drives then you get all your files back and a portable drive.

 

You can also just get an adapter to connect the drive to a USB port on another computer (no enclosure).
An adapter needs to be for the 2.5" drive found in a notebook and looks like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156101
that will connect 2.5", 3.5" and 5.25" which means laptop hard drives, desktop hard drives and CD and DVD drives.
It will not connect SATA drives. They do have more costly adapters that connect all of the above and SATA too.

 

The laptop needs a new battery, most likely a new motherboard and the power port for the adapter is also bad. So it's a whole bunch of things combined.

Thanks for the responses.. I'll see what I can find. Other than the use of a computer, I'm a real dummy when it comes to repairs and hardware.

 

if your not sure about taking drive out of laptop this video shows how with a 1501- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH3clgG17v8

An enclosure like this would be ok or as plodr suggests use a simple adapter. If you need any help with this just ask.