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I have a laptop that I would like to auction on ebay for spares/repairs, but firstly I would like to remove any personal data from the hard drive

I can't get the laptop to start up, I believe the power cord is faulty (I've had to replace this a few times in its 6 year life span), and there is no power in the battery.

Is there any way I can access/wipe the hard drive without having to purchase a new power cord? A new power cord will cost more than I would get for the laptop, so I'm trying to avoid this if possible

Thanks

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If your laptop is no longer under warranty, you can remove the HDD from it and then get an HDD to USB connector. Hook it up to a working computer and then transfer anything you need. Just remember that you may run into some problems when doing this as windows protects a lot of files.

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    Just to note that a lot of laptop mnufacturers allow moving the hdd and memory sticks without voiding the warranty.
    – Rook
    Jul 6, 2010 at 21:10
  • Thanks. Yeah the warranty is long gone. I've take the HDD out, it looks like a regular IDE connection, can I whack this in a spare PC and treat it as any other drive? Cheers
    – user155695
    Jul 6, 2010 at 21:13
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    @James: I doubt that it is standard IDE connector. Laptops usually use smaller connector with 44 pins. You would need something that has such connector - like 2.5" HDD external case or something like this cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270598458624.
    – Josip Medved
    Jul 6, 2010 at 21:20
  • Yeah, that's right. You're going to have to buy a laptop IDE connector.
    – BioXhazard
    Jul 7, 2010 at 18:50

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