Ok as some of you might know I'm in the process of building another computer. However the one that had all my data on it completely died on me (wont turn on at all, think there might be something wrong with the on/off switch), and I really need to get some of that data off my hard drive.

So what would be the best thing to do? Take the laptop apart myself? Send it to a PC specialist and let him get it out? Or just remove the front panel and short the on/off contacts to turn the PC back on?

Getting a hard drive out of a laptop is fairly easy to do, just unscrew the screws on the bottom. Many laptops even have a specific panel to remove just for the hard drive. It really couldn't be much simpler.

Once you got the hard drive out it's as simple as getting the right adapter for what you want to do (internal/external)

Alright, thanks. I started to do that last night but then started thinking that I'd better ask on here first so I didn't end up doing something wrong.

Ok I got around to taking of the HDD and it's a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136391. Now would I have to buy any special cables to hook that up to my new PC?

Just noticed that I now have an extra 160GB of Storage for my new PC now

If you plan on it being permanent internal storage, you'll probably need a 2.5'' to 3.5'' adapter.

If you want it external, you'll need a 2.5'' SATA to USB adapter.