my computer broke and i want to save its old data. i got myself another computer and a hard drive enclosure so that i can retrieve the data, but that didn't work. i tried 2 things. 1st, i set the drive on master and connect it with the enclosure to the computer. when i did that, i couldn't assess the drive at all. the 2nd thing i did was setting the drive on slave. when i did that, i could assess all irrelevant files, like the program files or the desktop icons, but i can't find any of the information that i saved in My Documents in the Documents and Settings folder on the old drive. several people told me to quick format the drive then use data recovery programs to recover the data, but i fear that this would be too risky and that some items would not be able to recover. is quick formatting the drive the only way, or is there a more efficient and effective way to retrieve data from an old hard drive?

just some other info: my old computer was a compaq presario with window xp. the hard drive in question is a samsung 80 GB ide hard drive and the hard drive enclosure i'm using is a Inland 3.5" hard drive enclosure.

Thank you in advance. You need a USB to IDE/SATA adapter. This will enable you to download your HD to another HD or external HD.You can also put your old drive as a slave and remove the data that way. After I did that I then formated that drive and used it for data storage. either way works.I should have read your first thread more carefully. You need to remove the jumper in your old drivr to make it a SINGLE not a master, your computer should recognize the external drive then.Karnac: what do you mean i need a USB to IDE adapter? my hard drive enclosure already converts the IDE to USB and i connect to the computer after that.

Chevronman: my computer RECOGNIZES the hard drive when it's not in master, but i just can't get any of the info that i saved on the My Documents folder in this old drive out. as a matter of fact, i can't even find the data when i do a search. i tried going into the old drive to  Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents but that just redirect me to the My Documents in the computer i'm using and not the My Documents in the old HDHi ...I suggested  the adapter because you were having difficulty with the present setup.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3425970&CatId=3770doesn't the adapter have the exact same function as the hard drive enclosure? Are you sure you are looking at the correct drive? When you use it as a storage drive instead of an OS drive labeled C: it will LABEL it as D: or E: or F: etc...
You should be able to goto "my computer" and double click on the drive that you wish to look at and then choose the folder you want.You could just slave the drive in the other computer.

http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2007/04/23/how-to-slave-hard-drive/

that might work

or try to take ownership of the "relevent" files

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

if neither of those option work, you could use a utility like this ONE to save your files

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Thats another option, but it sounds like he doesn't want to use the ide because it is so slow compared to sata or esata.I provide three options there. (My money's on the second one )