Cracked my screen diagonally down the middle & need to retrieve files, but I can't log in. New laptop with windows 8 processor. Already tried to connect it to another laptop with a double sided USB but I can't access them while it's asleep. Would I have to use a HDMI cable or is there another option? Actually I'm not even sure if my widescreen Sanyo has a HDMI. & I have an old Compaq desktop
Do you have a vga cable? It's the cable that you're most likely using on your desktop to connect your monitor and pc... unplug that and plug it into your laptop. If you don't you can always take out the hard drive and plug it into your other machine. If you're not familiar with computer hardware you can find some great laptop disassembly videos on youtube.
Well it depends on what kind of display outputs the laptop has. Most laptops have one of the VGA ports that FuzzyKing was talking about, although some thin laptops have HDMI or DisplayPort instead. If it's VGA it will look like this on the laptop, and the cable you need will have big blue plugs with thumbscrews.
Just take out the hard drive, and attach it to a desktop computer, or buy a 2.5" external enclosure that connects via USB. If you have a desktop that is fairly new, you can take the hard drive out of the laptop, and plug it into the desktop using a SATA cable. It will be too small to screw into the chassis, but it will work.
If you've got time just replace the screen with a replacement from ebay it'll be hella cheaper than buying a new lappy
just unplug your laptop hdd, and attach it to the other laptop you mention (replace its HDD with yours.)