New member- so thanks for any help.
Old putter took a poop during a power outage. Six years old custom built, upgraded to the max. Was on second power pack and figured to old to fix again due again to another power outage. Anyway, saved the hard drive with window xp and all my files (I think). Now the hard part is, new putter which is a Dell Inspiron w/window 7. I would like to remove some files from old hd (pictures and music) and install to the new putter. I am experinced enough to open the new one and install maybe as a second hd. But, maybe not experinced enough to trust myself. Is there an easier workaround? Just noticed- old hd is IDE and new hd is SATA, in my mind that could be a problem? Bought a device w/power pack, IDE connector and usb connector, tried it and can not figure it out. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated

I had a similar issue with an employee and we bought an IDE Encasement from Bestbuy that turned the internal HDD into an external... is this what you're talking about?