I bought a new toy from Maplins today. It is an adaptor box & PSU to plug into any internal IDE device and connect it to your PC via the USB2 port, thus making it an external device.
Like many, I suspect, I have several HDD's about that work OK but have been superseded in capacity. For instance, I removed a 40Gbt drive to install a
120 as the new C drive & suddenly having a 40Gbt USB Mass Storage device is very useful. You can even boot from it if you remember to set the BIOS to look at it. Alternatively, a second DVD writer plugs in & works seamlessly, the system recognising it as another drive.
To avoid the dreaded static, I've glued a piece of thick card over the bottom edge of the HDD to keep unwary fingers from the revolving machinery ;o))
At £29.99, I think it as a very useful tool.
Regards,
Kim Siddorn. "Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out." Cardinal Wolsey (1471-1530)