Transfering hard drive data

Hi, I sent my laptop in for repair to fix the cracked screen, they then said the hard drive was nackered and I needed a new one. The guy then said that they could transfer the data from my laptop's hard drive to the new one so I'm not losing anything.

Going by this I'm assuming that it is possible to transfer laptop hard drive data to another. I have an external hard drive and I have an ordinary PC. So my question is how can I transfer my laptops hard drive data over to one of these (or even to another laptop)? I think I may be able to restore the hard drive trough the recovery discs but of course I would lose everything.

Some more info that may be of help; my laptop just loads but doesn't actually start so I can't do anything on the laptop itself. My laptop was running windows 7 which I manually installed through the disc Sony sent me, my PC is vista. I'm not sure what else you may need to know but feel freeto ask if you think it will help.

Many thanks in advance.

 

Sorry to bump but I've sorted this now, didn't realise Sony vaio recovery came with a "rescue data" option. Very handy I must say!