what do you mean by 'died'?

if the hard drive is still viable (i.e. the OS went south) the files are recoverable....

what I would do is to hook up the old HDD to the new computer...this can be done by either putting it into an enclosure that modifies it to an external drive of either USB2 or a firewire connection (IEEE 1394), or by putting it physically into the new machine (assuming its a desktop) and hooking it up...your machine will not see it as anything but a data drive (i.e. it won't try to boot into it as an OS)...then its simply a matter of moving files off of the old HDD onto the new one...if the drive is working you can (and I would) leave it in the new machine....it might be a thing of its failing and will only work for a bit, then over heats and shuts down...if this is the case, then you will have the arduous process of transferring files, shutting down the machine to let the drive cool off, and repeating until all of the files are transferred...a trick is to put the failing drive into a good zip lock baggy and putting it in the freezer....take it out when cold and install it and pull files off...

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So Long and Thanks for All the Files
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