Recovering windows files from a dead laptop hdd

[dr pepper]

OK, so I managed to connect one of my laptop usb ports to the mains, dead laptop.

I have pulled the 2.5" sata hard drive and put it in my desktop, the desktop recognizes it and accesses most of the files, so the hdd seems to be ok.
However I had some files on the laptop desktop I cant find, either manually or using the search, how do I get data off the laptops windows desktop?

One thing I havent tried which I'm going to do next is plug in the laptops hdd as the primary and see if I can boot from it, probably wont work being a different computer.

 

[BradtheRad]

It is vital that you do not permit the ailing disk to be written to. If this has occurred then that might be the reason some of your files cannot be found.

Or perhaps in the last seconds as the disk crashed, there's a chance the file allocation table got corrupted.

Only if you are very lucky, can a recovery utility program discover the fragments of your missing files, and re-assemble them.

 

[123jack]

If your lost data is important I'd suggest you boot from another disk (as brad said dont write to that one) and run the
recover program from this site : https://www.piriform.com/
Download the free version - install it on the new boot drive (**dont try and boot your damaged drive anywhere)
I've used their recover program a couple of times with good results. Remember to save recovered files to your
new boot drive not back to the damaged one because that could overwrite files you are trying to recover at the same time.
If it works pay them some money.

Alternatively if you are more techie minded I'd recommend (always) getting partition magic

 

[picgak]

I have pulled the 2.5" sata hard drive and put it in my desktop, the desktop recognizes it and accesses most of the files

If the file is in desktop you would have surely got it by doing as above in the search, I think the file is missing or corrupted. What was the OS on the laptop?