restoring an external hard drive

Hello all,
I had some major issues with the old puter as far as power supply went. I am now on a different pute and would like to use the hard drive from the old one for an external hard drive. I know pretty much nothing about external hard drive and am wondering:

By ext hd carcass to fit old hard drive.

Hook up to new computer for access?

Will I be able to retrieve all the old files,programs,email etc....?

Thanks for any and all help here,
Jeb

 

What is the OS of the working computer? Is it NTFS or FAT32?
What is the format of the hard drive that you pulled?

It will probably be readable but it does depend on format. FAT32 can be read by all computers (most USB sticks are formatted FAT32).

2.5" external enclosures are for laptop hard drives and don't include an external power adapter and a fan. The 3.5" size is for internal desktop hard drives and may or may not include an external power adapter and fan. (I opt for one with a power adapter because the USB ports on a computer then do not have to supply the power). The come with CDs but unless you are running windows 98SE, the CD is not needed because the enclosure is plug and play.

You'd be looking at enclosures like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716010
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173016
as examples. If you old computer's drive connected by a flay gray or blue ribbon type cable.

 

I have the ext hard drive hooked up but I am getting nothing.

While having the issues with my old computer it would just shut down so I do not believe it is a bad hard drive. Is it possible that the loaner computer is so old? The operating system is xp home and the one on the external is xp professional.

I am assuming that I go to my computer to open the external?

 

working computer is NTFS