My old PC died but the HDD's are OK.  So I connected them, one at a time, to my XP PC thru VANTEC's IDE to USB device.  XP sees one of the drives but wants to Format it?  This will erase the data, right?  How do I just read the data?  Thanks for any helpWhat Windows version did you have on DEAD computer? How do you know HDs are OK?The OS on the dead PC was Windows XP with SP2.  According to Dell and the lights on the motherboard the memory failed.  And since the PC was over 5 years I decided to get an XPS SYSTEM with XP SP2.  The HDD's had been OK otherwise.I assume, old drive is in NTFS?
How are you trying to access external drive?
What does Disk Management say about the drive?This drive is partitioned into NTFS and FAT32.  I'm using a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB adapter to connect the drive.  When I connect I hear the USB "clunk, clunk" sound.  Disk Management does not see the drive.  However, the drive is on the Device Manager and says its working OK.  BTW, I spoke to a Dell Tech and was told to contact the mfg., Seagate in this case, and ask if there is a driver needed, or do they have another suggestion.  Not a lot of help.Make sure the jumper on the HD is set to CS, if it still doesnt WORK try the jumper on master. The bad news is, not all drives are compatible with the adapters. You could also put it as a slave inside the computer to save your data.