Computer fried, need data...what now?

Ok, tech heads, im in trouble! Early last year my computer crashed and couldnt be repaired. That wasn't an issue as I was planning on buying a lap top this year. However, all my vital data such as photos and documents were on the hard drive (which obviously cant be put in a lap top) I need the data from the harddrive to add to my new lap top, but when attempting to put the old hard drive into my brothers PC, it said we needed to reactivate windows. I am so confused and have no technology brains at all! How can I get my data from my old hard drive, onto my new lap top??

Computer fried, need data...what now?computer protection

The putting your hard drive into another computer to recover data can be done if you know how. Temporaly remove a CDROM or DVD Drive from your brothers computer take a look at the CD Drive and see how the jumper is set (the jumper is that little plasitc that indicates if the CD Drive is a slave a master or Cable Select. Your Hard drive will have to mimic this. So change the Jumber on the hard drive to be the same as the cd or dvd drive you pulled out. Now with the Jumper set to mimic your cd drive,the data and power cable connected reboot your computer and see if windows detects the drive it will probably appear as drive D, E or F

Computer fried, need data...what now?free antivirus download

I would buy a external harddrive enclosure from www.tigerdirect.ca which will only cost you about $30 and allow you to access your hard drive through USB cable without having to install the old drive into someone elses computer. The great thing about these enclosures is it allows you to make any old hard disk compatible with any system and instantly portable.
if you want to keep your data then DO NOT reactivate windows.

best and only thing you should do is take it to a computer technician (preferably who is your best friend). But be careful as it does cost a lot of money to retrieve data which has been deleted!