Posting here because computer hardware isn't exactly sexy or fun. Unless you're into that.
For the last year or so I've had a problem with my laptop. Specifically an issue where the laptop itself will power on, but not the display. It used to be a rare occurrence that I would have to shut it down and boot it up again. But over time it became more common, resulting in me having to make a good 10 or so attempts for the display to light up in conjunction with the power. And as of yesterday, the display will not power on at all, no matter how many attempts I make (I tried for 3 hours). This is actually what I was afraid would happen, and part of the reason I was asking about external hard drives as a backup plan. Needless to say, all of my files are now stored away on a computer that I have no ability to access. I'm actually posting this from the family computer in Incognito mode which sucks and is no fun at all.
As it turns out this is a fairly common issue with the front runner cause being a bad RAM stick. Apparently, they can deteriorate over time which keeps the computer from initiating tasks and booting up fully. That's the theory right now anyway. I've tried cleaning it, and it looks like I may just have to replace it.
But in case this doesn't work and I for some reason have to get another computer, is there a way for me to transfer my files from my computer's hard drive into another computer? Or at least onto an external hard drive for the time being? Everything I have is saved on my C-drive (thank God I had the foresight to do that). The system itself still performs fine and there is no data corruption or problems with the OS. I just can't access them directly because there's no display.
I've never worked with an internal hard drive before, so I'm unfamiliar with how they operate. Is there a port where I can hook it up to another device? Is it that simple? Also, if anybody has any other thoughts on what else might be causing the problem I'm all ears.