Need help transfering old files from on Sata to another

I've had a bit of computer trouble recently. After a power outage my computer quit working. Some type of I/O error and windows recovery wouldn't fix it. I tried my system recovery disk but the option of keeping my old files was not available, only the option of "exit" or a complete reformat that deletes all data on the drive.

Anyway I bought a new hard drive so I could use my computer. This new hard drive had the same I/O error but I used my recovery disk to go with the reformat that deletes all data on the drive (new drive so nothing to lose here). Well now I'm trying to transfer the data from my old hard drive to my new one because I don't know how else to save this data. I tried connecting my old hard drive in the number Sata3 motherboard slot while my new hard drive is in the Sata2 slot (I don't see a Sata1 slot). I checked the BIOS and my new hard drive appears first, however I am back to the I/O error if I do this.

Next I disconnected the old hard drive, started up windows, then connected to the old hard drive. A partition D appeared in My Computer but when I tried to access it it says I must format the data and this will cause me to erase all data present. I'm not sure the full extent of network sharing but I gave it a try and couldn't get it to work.

Is there any way to transfer these files from my old hard drive or some way to save this data?

 

This has to be one of my favorite tools:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

It has been invaluable over the years, and is well worth the price, especially if you work on PCs.

 

Is there any way to do this without spending money?

* This is a desktop computer by the way.

 

Greetings, blahpooblah, and welcome to MajorGeeks...

The adapter suggested by the mekanic is a very useful device - it or one like it should be in any toolbox...

If you can't go that route, I guess you could boot to a Linux distro and transfer files to a flash drive. Do you have a flash drive available, and do you have the capacity to burn .iso files?

 

My friend said he might be able to help me with the linux thing, but that won't be possible for a while (maybe a month) because we live pretty far away from eachother and I don't have linux or the ability to burn stuff.

 

Do you have an empty USB flash drive? You could put Linux on that and if your computer can boot from USB then you can run Linux from the USB. I would think your computer can boot from USB since it is SATA drives which means it should be new enough to boot from USB.