highlander

Hi Plastic Nev Thanks for your reply - think I'll get an enclosure and see how I get on from there - cheers :)

Hi I have a panasonic dvd recorder which has a fault and the authorised panasonic repairer can no longer get the parts. I have removed the hard drive which is a Western Digital WD1600BB WD Caviar 160GB internal hard drive - 3.5inch. The connections are 1 set of 40pins, 1 set of 10 pins (with a jumper on the two on the right I think) and 1 set of 4 pins( which I think are for power). I would like to connect it to my home PC (windows 7), download the files then get software to extract the files and see if I can recover any. I wondered if anyone could help please wit this and the following the question ? - can I get a sata cable (or should that be pata ?) to connect to connect it to the PC, eg would a 40pin to usb be suitable ? - does it also need external power ? - do I need to do anything with the jumpers ? - could I get an enclosure instead to put the drive into and then connect to the PC - any recommendations for software to extract the files ? or am I wasting my time and should I just give up ? (I know a wee bit about PCs, eg have added memory in the past but don't really know anything about the technicalities) Thanks