Snagging from old hard drive

I need to snag some files from a hard drive that was in my old computer. Should I get an external hard drive enclosure or an external hard drive dock? Both seem to be about the same price.

I would go with the dock - http://www.slashgear.com/hard-drive-doc ... ds-228087/

Add the drive to your current computer.

Pierre, over at Computer Hounds, can also pull files and information off old crashed hard drives, even if they don't run.

daisypusher wrote: Add the drive to your current computer.

My old drive is configured 32 bit and my new computer is 64 bit. It may pose a problem, I do not know.

The worst case scenario is that the drive will not be recognized, but that is unlikely. And would not the same problem exist whether a drive is external or internal.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistainstall/thread/8de744a6-df6e-4bd1-8dbb-0877d9c44ad3

Do more Internet searches as necessary to get the answer for your situation.

OK I am going to get a drive dock and see what happens. I have downloaded some forensic software and it should help me quite a bit. Internet searches and all of your advice has helped quite a bit. Thanks.

The drive itself is not formatted 32bit vs. 64 bit. Likely the drive is formatted as NTFS on both computers. 32 & 64 bit is for how the OS and applications interface / operate. Doesn't impact data.

As long as you are moving documents you shouldn't have a problem. If you are trying to move an application from one windows computer to another you are basically out of luck and will need to reinstall the application.

This is how I resolved my hard drive problem:
I purchased a hard drive dock and, to my dismay, it accepted only SATA hard drives. This was plainly stated whenever I purchased but I was not at a website that would plainly state my level of ignorance. My daughter has been given this $59 hard drive dock as a gift and she is tickled with it. It will read 2 SATA hard drives simultaneously.
My next purchase was a StarTech SATA/IDE hard drive dock and it works as advertised. I migrated all of my files from my old drive to my new machine.
So, once again, science and technology has been conquered by throwing money at it.