How to retrieve Minecraft worlds from a dead computer on another computer?

No, you can't. If you managed to revive your computer long enough to put the save files on a thumb drive or something, then you could do it. Otherwise, you can't.

I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure there's no way to retrieve worlds

Bop don't care.

If the hard drive is good, the YES YOU CAN RETRIEVE YOUR MINECRAFT WORLDS. You need remove the hard drive and hook it up to another computer so you can access the files. All your worlds are in your.minecraft directory, all you have to do is copy them over.

It is possible. There are two ways to retrieve your minecraft worlds.

SYSTEM 1: THE H-DRIVE
Your hard drive contains all of your files, including your games, data, powerpoints and stuff. If you can manage to remove it and retrieve your data, your worlds will be there. Otherwise, if however can't be retrieved, then i'm sorry. ////EDIT / ABOUT 2 MINUTES LATER AFTER MY LAST EDIT: Your worlds are stored in the following:

Step 1: Press the start button, type in "%appdata%" and then press Enter.
Step 2: Click on "Roaming" foder.
Step 3: Click on the ".minecraft" directory.
Step 4: Click on "saves", this folder has all of your worlds.

//// EVERYTHING ELSE BELOW THIS LINE IS NOT YET EDITED \\\

SYSTEM 2: ANY DOWNLOADS?
Sometimes, you may have uploaded your worlds to planetMinecraft or MinecraftForums or Mediafire. This will allow you to download your worlds again.

I hope this has helped you. I had a broken computer once. It was Windows Vista. All of my precious worlds were there. Until recently, I just purchased a Mac. I don't think I'll be able to save my worlds again because some Windows.extensions are not compatible with Mac.

Cya.

EDIT / ABOUT A MIN LATER ON THE SAME DAY I ANSWERED THIS QUESTION:

SYSTEM 3: USB FLASH DRIVE
If you have a USB 2.0 or 3.0+ flash drive that you stored your worlds in, then you would be able to store your worlds back into your new computer. I do this sometimes for map downloads for PlanetMinecraft or a Minecraft map website for Xbox 360.

I hope this helped you.
Btw, what do you mean by your computer died on you? Is it broken? Or is it low battery? If it is low battery, you will get it back when charging it. If you however lost your charger, always feel free to buy it on Amazon or Best bUY. NOW THAT i'VE JUST said that, my Mac is Low Battery.

That depends on what is wrong with the computer.

If it is dead because the HD ate its allocation table, then odds are you'll need both a professional and be very lucky. The allocation table tells the HD where all its files are, and without it *nothing* can be removed from the drive.

If it's a simpler matter of the OS being corrupted, then you can remove the HD from the computer and connect it to another computer while using the second computer's original HD to boot up. Then grab and move the world data before disconnecting the drive.

If the problem doesn't involved the HD then the above steps are also easily possible.

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If you don't have the know-how to remove and install a HD yourself, any computer professional should be able to do so. Tell them you need the data from %appdata%/Roaming/.minecraft/saves (or whatever your Minecraft saves data to.)