I can't remember the exact error message - something about unable to recognize USB device.

I'm not getting noises from it that would make you pucker (like the read head dragging on the disk). I do get a clicking sound like it's trying to read & maybe not finding the zero sector. It was hooked to the kid's computer that crashed a while back & hasn't worked since. Since it was the kid's computer, it prolly didn't get the virus updates as regularly as it should've. Maybe it got attacked???

"One thing you can try is to remove the HD out of its USB enclosure and hook it up to your computer as an IDE or a Sata drive."

I was going to try that but wasn't ready to try that yet since the new 'puter is running Vista & I'm still learning it's idiocyncrocies. I really don't care about saving the drive - I just wanna save the data.

"It's been a while, but I had luck with ..."

Thanks Kenny - I'll have a look.