What is a USB case and how does it work (In plain english please!!)?

Question

I have a dell laptop. The power adaptor broke and now I cannot turn the laptop on cause the battery ran out of power and the adaptor doesn't work.

I have taken the hard drive out of it and really need to find out what I need to do to retrieve all my old files.

Have seen some references to a "USB" case as possible solution but not sure what it is and how it would connects to the hard drive.

I have bought a new laptop and get the impression this is hooked up to old hard drive and USB Case also.

appreciate any advice I get.

thanks
Mark,

Answer 1

being a field repair technician, i carry one of these in my tool bag. plug in the hard drive and then plug the whole thing into a usb port on your new laptop. the old hard drive will be assigned a drive letter in your my computer folder. you can access all the data without any problems.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=378902

Answer 2

I had a similar problem with a Sony Vaio notebook.
Could you not get the old Dell one repaired?
There are also services which will recover your files.
But all of this might be too expensive for you to do.

A USB Case is one where you can install your drive.
It allows you to mount your drive as a remote one.
Connect that via a USB cable to your new machine.
Then you would be able to read it's contents.

Answer 3

it's a case for a hard drive. usualy plastic the drive can be plugged in to a USB port and accessed. by another computer..

It might be cheeper to get an ac adapter for your dell than a USB hard drivecase a power adapted is about 30-40 dollars
http://www.simplemicro.com/laptop-parts/dell/&ca=goppc&kw=dell+ac+adapter?gclid=CKie0ZHw3IwCFRNyZQodXw0-dA