Is it possible to revive an old laptop?

Hey there, thanks for reading this and any good useable input if greatly appreciated. I had an hp laptop, its in storage now, but the monitor went out and it was going to cost almost as much to buy a new one. They told me there was a way to transfer the things I wanted from it so I bought the parallel cables. Now I have a little time and will at least try to retrieve my information. I have general questions on how to do this; 1. as I am not able to see the monitor and do not remember where all files may be placed. 2. Is it possible to use the old laptop in conjunction with the new laptop? The new laptop is an hp zd8000. I just got to thinking, with the extra hardware and memory, it might make a nice enhancement to store info etc. on and free up some on the 8000 and not have to invest in the zipfiles and other media storage devices I have been looking into. The 8000 is cool with port connections for those things. Anyway, any info on this would be greatly appreciated. I looked online at hp a bit and it seems someone is suggesting it might create an unbalanced situation of some type, but I dont see how that is too different from having a wireless lan and connecting to that computer that way....

I am also novice level. I know and understand pretty much things, but some things seem to be spoken in a foreign language too. Any help on this subject is very muchly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

 

ddp has the best solution. you can't go wrong. Just for a second suggestion you could hookup the laptop to a secondary display. That is only if you notebook supports it.