External enclosure ?

[OB923]

My old PC running Windows XP has finally died but I took out the hard drive to save my data.
I am now running windows 7
How do I find out what kind of "external enclosure" to buy so I can plug into a usb port and access my data on the old XP hard drive?

[DaveLembke]

Does this hard drive have 2 rows of pins about 40 pins with another set of pins for MA/SL/CS as a PATA ( IDE ) drive or is it the newer SATA drive with a smaller data connection that has a plastic strip with gold contacts?

Also did this come out of a desktop computer or a laptop... Desktop computers usually use the larger 3.5" drives where as the laptops use 2.5" or sometimes smaller 1.8" drives etc


Here are desktop computer external enclosure options:

3.5" IDE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182153&cm_re=ide_external_enclosure-_-17-182-153-_-Product

3.5" SATA (NOTE: There are cheaper ones out there, but this one I like the cooling fan in so you dont roast your sata drive * I have 3 of these and they work well to keep drive cool for large long running data transfers ) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0722KG3243&cm_re=sata_external_enclosure-_-17-173-042-_-Product


Here are laptop external enclosure options:

2.5" IDE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA10V2GV5057&cm_re=ide_external_enclosure-_-17-155-704-_-Product

2.5" SATA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392032&cm_re=sata_external_enclosure-_-17-392-032-_-Product