I don't know that much about computors but need to get data off my old hard drive from another computor. I read your post about putting the old hard drive to slave and connecting it to the hard drive cable and also the power cable. During the boot up I had the side cover off the case which will not allow the system to boot up. I tried to reboot again (with the cover off- had not caught that yet)with the same results. So I freeked out and started to unplug the old hard drive while saying I need to reboot again which my daughter who is holding the flashlight heard so she hit the start botton again. At this time I realized that I had unplugged the power from new operating system not the old hard drive and hit the power button to shut down. (1)By doing what I did with the power to the hard drive did I damage it. (2) When I try to boot up the system now with the side cover on it will not boot up. It says "wait...." no kidding it does and just stays there going no further. Or it asked for the booting disk.
Can you help this lost soul?

With errors like that, you may want to find a friend who has some experience working on the inside of computers.

Take the cover off. In your case, always keep the power off while inside the computer. Unplug the drive you are trying to copy from and make sure your regular drive is properly connected. Put the cover back in its place and see if it boots.

If you have no problems, then power down, and put the old drive back in. I would suggest using the CD drive cables. I may be able to help you with this if you post your computer model information.

Basically, you unplug both cables going to the CD drive, and plug them into the drive you want to copy from, then your computer should still boot. If you go to "My Computer" you will notice two drives. Find your info and copy it to the other drive.

If you have any other problems, post them.