Retrieving files from semi-dead laptop

My old Dell Inspiron 1150 display was having issues last week and finally died on me completely on Thursday night. I had hoped that I would be able to hook it to a monitor to save off files I’d like and transfer to a new laptop but that doesn’t seem to be working. I’m wondering if there is a way to make it a slave drive to copy the files? It’s running Windows XP and I have the option of viewing it with my work machine which is Windows XP or the new laptop which is Vista. Or, are there other options you can think of?

While the files aren’t make or break they are recipe files (and I’m a caterer) that I’d like to take to the new computer.

Thanks for any help you can give.