Want to access an old Hard Drive

I have a couple of old hard drives I would like to access. Basically I am looking for the simplest way to access the data on them, but have no need to permanantly install either of them. I have no idea if this matters, but 1 has xp, 1 has vista installed both are from a desktop. I have a current desktop with vista as well. I've never tried to connect a second hard drive.

I'm looking for guidance on accessing the data on them and moving this data over to my current and permanent hard drive. Preferably without installing them permanently, unless that would be easist. Suggestions?

 

These are obviously SATA's right? Easy, just install them and copy as they are hot swappable. If they are IDE's then it's a different story but not much more complicated. Open up your machine and hook up the power and data cables if SATA.

 

Its really that easy? Will it just pop up as a new drive etc? Do i have to worry about setting it as a slave drive? (and conversly do i need to set my current drive as the master?) or is that old news?

 

Yes, you will see a new drive letter, no settings needed on SATA's. As easy as that.

 

Very nice. Much appreciated. too easy. Suggestions on buying the data cables?

 

Any major retailer.... amazon will have plenty

 

One thought is if you have to buy cables getting a SATA/IDE to USB adapter might be an option. They can come in handy.

If it is just a one shot deal then you may want to save your money and just get a couple of SATA cables. Or you could use the SATA cable from your CD/DVD drive to accomplish the one time transfer and then return the cable to the optical drive when finished. This is assuming that all hard drives and optical drives are SATA connections.