If the motherboard no longer functions is there a way to retrieve the data?

Data is stored on the hard drive. The data should still be there. You can buy a cheap external enclosure to put your old hard drive into that will work on a new computer. Or just replace the motherboard on the old computer. Assuming we are not talking about a laptop you could put the old hard drive into a new computer .

And by hard drive I mean the little box inside the big box that actually stores data. It is the size of three or four CD’s stacked. Some people call the tower the hard drive. My mom does this and causes constant confusion. The hard drive could fit in your pocket.

thanksssssss

This is what a hard drive looks like: picture

You need to figure out if your hard drive uses ATA or SATA. There will be two plugs going into your hard drive, one is power and looks like one of these, the other is either ATA or SATA.

A SATA plug looks like this or this

An ATA plug looks like this

So you want a USB external hard drive enclosure. If it’s a laptop hard drive, it’s 2.5”, if it’s a desktop hard drive, I think it’s 3.5”