Reading a SATA HDD via USB or IDE
 

A friend recently had his PC die on him (blue screen of death) Happy to have a fresh install as he does not have a recovery disk, and I dont have a copy of XP Home to repair it with.
Just need to retrieve a couple of folders from it, so was going to run it as a slave and take the files off (hoping the HDD is not fooked)

Cheapest cable I can find in-store is £40, but can get them on Ebay for £15.
Any ideas guys ?

Repairing the install would be great but at this stage I dont want to harm the folders he wants to get off there.

Little long winded.. but throw an IDE hard drive in his PC and install on that.. recovery files via internal sata connections and then start over.

Most boards have IDE and Sata still

I paid 7 quid for one of these from a computer fair, does all ide and SATA, really handy piece of kit so as long as postage isn't too bad, this is an ok price.

Amazon.co.uk: SATA 3.5" 2.5" IDE 3 IN 1 TO USB 2.0 CABLE ADAPTOR: Electronics & Photo

Or if you want something a bit more robust get a HDD enclosure. Loads on ebay.

I bought a USB to SATA, 2.5 and 3.5 IDE on ebay for around a tenner all in - very handy when rescuing different types of drives.

Cheers guys, didnt want to wait for Ebay delivery especially over the new years, but a couple of good ideas there. Im only minutes from the crystal palace computer fair lol. Dont know why I didnt think of that.
Installing a fresh install on and IDE is also a superb idea.
Will get working on it today.

Thanks again guys.