Murphy's law strikes again: laptop's motherboard dies before a
handful of critical files are backed up. The files in question
could easily fit in a floppy disk, not to mention a USB memory
stick, but the local data transfer outfit wants to charge me $300
USD for the service.

What would I need to do this myself? I suppose I'd have to remove
the hard drive from the laptop, which should be challenging enough
(for me anyway), but then what?

Thanks!

bill

P.S. BTW, is there any good site for DIY laptop repair? I could
use a few tips on removing a laptop's hard drive.

The motherboard has died, but the files should still be present on the
drive, so there really isn't any difficulty here. Save yourself about
$285 by doing the following:

1. Buy an exrternal (USB2) enclosure for a laptop (i.e. 2.5") drive
2. Remove the drive from the laptop (this is usually quite easy) and
place in external enclosure
3. Connect to any computer that supports USB2. Your drive should show
up in Windows Explorer
4. Copy files from the drive to wherever you wish.