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"  Recently I dropped my laptop and when I tried to turn it on I got the dreaded error message. After I got over the initial shock, I realized I&amp;#039;d never backed up my photos, important documents, or music files. I wanted to recover them but wasn&amp;#039;t sure if the hard drive was broken or if something else was wrong. Without paying a bundle to a computer guru, I was able to tell the hard drive wasn&amp;#039;t broken and recover my files. Here&amp;#039;s how you can too:  Before going too far, listen to the hard drive when you turn on the computer. If it makes a grinding noise or clicks repeatedly, chances are the hard drive was probably damaged and your best bet is to take it to an expert to prevent further damage and complete loss of your files. If you don&amp;#039;t hear those noises move on to step two. The first thing you need to do is remove your hard drive. Depending on the brand of the laptop, hard drives are located in different spots. You can find where your&amp;#039;s is located in the user manual. If you&amp;#039;re like me and haven&amp;#039;t the slightest idea where it is, carefully flip the laptop over and unscrew one cover at a time until you find it, they are generally about 4 inches wide by 3 inches long and less than a half an inch thick, and remove it from your computer. Connect your hard drive to another computer. In order to connect your hard drive to another computer you will need a USB hard drive adapter which can be found at any computer store for about $20 to $30. Once you connect the hard drive to another computer it should show up as another drive. Open up the drive and if nothing is damaged, you should be able locate your files. It may take some hunting around as it may not look exactly the same as it did on your old computer but they should be together so once you find one file in a folder the rest of the files you kept in that same folder should be there .   Transfer the files you want from the hard drive onto the computer you&amp;#039;re using. Next: Backup your hard drive. I learned my lesson the hard way!  Need a backup device? Check out Best Portable External Hard Drives  To see how we test products at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, please go to www.goodhousekeeping.com/ghritours. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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