My hard drive stopped working so I had a guy from the Best Buy Geek Squad come out and he diagnosed that the disk was bad.  I BOUGHT a new drive and everything is fine now.  The guy was able to access my old drive by loading Windows XP off of one of his utility discs and backing up some of my important files.  Even while doing this the old drive responded very slowly.

The problem is that I cannot figure out how he accessed my drive in order to get the rest of my files.  When I hook up my old hard drive, either just as the primary or as a secondary, my computer will not boot.  And I can't just boot with my new drive and then plug in the old drive after it has booted, the old drive obviously doesn't show up.

Is there a way to just boot from the Windows XP CD or from a boot disk, so that I can access my old drive?  Or is there any other way to get my files for that matter?

Please help!!!

Thanks!I wouldn't be able to TELL you about a utility disk or whatnot, but I can suggest that you check your jumper settings when doing this. The drive may be in no shape to boot, but there may be a chance you can still access it as a slave.

When you hook it up, ensure that the jumpers on your main HD are set to "master with slave" or "forcing device 1 present," or something of the sort. Make sure the second HD is set to "slave." Most HDs have jumper guides stamped into the metal or on the label, but you can always check the manufacturer website if you're not sure.

Lastly, you should never connect a hard drive while the system is powered on. Besides the risk to electrocuting yourself, the introduction of devices could cause a problem with the power supply, or a problem with the software.Go to this link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822999161

I borrowed something similar from work a couple weeks ago to recover a customers hard drive. If you are into PC repair (which I do on the side as well as at work) this is the greatest thing since sliced penguin. And USb is hotswappable so you dont have to worry about SCREWING your drive or mb by plugging it in the ide when pc is on. And don't worry about electrocuting yourself with +5 and +12 volts DC ide ribbon. The amps are not there.Sweet.  That looks like it will work!  Thanks a bunch, I'm gonna try it out!Let me KNOW how it works out for you.