hi i'm new to this site and computers so take it easy on me

my problem is i borrowed a friends compaq presario laptop a few months back. when i plugged it in it started smoking out the back and sparked. i disconnected it and a few days later tried again, there was nothing.

my friends not bothered about the actual computer as he was getting a new one from work, he did however want some of the info off of the hard drive. i got in touch with compaq and they said all i had to do was remove the hard drive and then connect it to an IDE? cable with a 2.5" adaptor and then i COULD connect it to a desktop pc.

i took a trip to pc world who informed me that adaptors are hard to come by and to use an external enclosure that PLUGS into a usb port. i took it home but now i keep getting the message that the device cannot start followed by code 10.

as i say im new to computers and thought that it must mean that the hard drive is dead, one of my colleagues however told me that the hard drive should be fine as any problem i had with the laptop would only affect the motherboard.

i have no idea what to do and pc world wont give me any information now and have told me not to bother taking the enclosure back to them because they know i have used it

is there anybody who can shed some light on whether the hard drive could be/ will be dead, and if not if there is anything i can do with either the enclosure or another device to get the info off of the hard drive for my mate

i hope you can help me out

gazIt certainly could be dead, especially if smoke was involved and we don't know where. If the drive cannot be accessed with an adapter I would not throw too much more money after it. Are you sure it was set up correctly in the enclosure?yes everything was setup right, i even took it apart and set it up again to make sure.

when the laptop was smoking it was coming out of the fan on the back. i told my friend that id killed his computer and when he looked at it he plugged it in but said the pin heats up whenever a charge GOES through it.

thats why he thought the motherboard would be dead. i keep being told that the hard drive should be ok though  but nothing definate. ive tried speaking to compaq,microsoft and pc world to FIND out what could be causing  a code 10 fault but with no luckBelow is what you need.It doesn't involve USB.

You should know to JUMPER the drive to Slave.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812119020thats what i was originally looking for but was told that the adaptors are hard to come byIt depends where you look. Just because they did not have it does not mean it is difficult to get for you.