Sata HDD

I have had a problem with intermittant failure to boot up with existing HD, and finally nothing, zilch, caput!
Now I have a lot of inportant info on this drive, and want to try to recover it.
I have purchased a larger HDD and intend installing it as Master and will try to recover data from the original drive by making it a slave??
My existing system is xp+3, but have Vista Professional installed on a laptop and have cd's for both systems.
My question is this. Which system will be best to use to enable recovery of data from XP drive? Or is this even possible.
The new HDD will I understand have to be formatted, and it is large enough 500gb, to allow a dual system.
Any suggestions as to best approach would be much appreciated.
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xocal

 

You have the right idea, install OS on new drive, install old drive as slave or cable select and see if you can access your data. It dosent matter which OS you use, if the hard drive is junk you may have to use the old freeze trick or a few others. ed

 

I find Vista a pain! xp is more user friendly so will probably go for that.
I've tried the freeze trick, which worked for short period, but not enough to enable a backup to usb. What are the others you mention??

 

I have an article about drives, i just looked thru it, 99% said freezing, a few had luck with, believe it or not, dropping it on a carpet floor about 6in drop. Maybe. ed

 

Have tried these, plus a sharp knock, but to no avail!
Here's hoping the new HDD will solve my problem.