Old e-machine broke down completley no power, nothing.
I don't want to go thru the hassle of installing the old drive in the new computer. I just want to figure out a way to transfer the data, not the programs from the old drive to the new system.

Is there a product i can purchase that will allow me to do so, or do i have to go thru the process of taking out the drive on the new computer and installing the old drive?

I hope i'm making sense.

You can add the old drive as a slave in the new computer, that way the files are all there and no real need to transfer. If the old drive is good, leave it as a slave for backup of stuff you dont want to lose. Just make sure you set the jumper pins to slave on the old one before you put it in. Theres usually a small diagram showing where the jumper needs to be.

thanks for the tip

Yes - thanks for the tip.
I think I will use my old hardrive as a slave rather than transferring the data. I'm new to this and never thought of that: I'm just starting research on building my own PC.

I was hoping you could answer this. (Hope I haven't hijacked the thread but it is relevant to the issue of using old hard drives as a 'slaves'.)

My old hardrive has a speed of 7200 rpm. The new hard drives will be WD Raptors at 10,000 rpm. Is it possible to use the old slower HD as a slave when the new HD is faster? Will there be compatibility issues?

Thanaks for your time.

Yes its possible to use the old drive with slower speed as a slave. I have exactly the same setup on mine, works like a charm. Only thing you'll notice is the slower drive will lag a bit but its minimal.

yes you can four hard Drive on a single Computer Two Primary Master and two Secondary Slave. before attaching both HDD on your new PC make sure that you have configured you second or old Hard Drive as slave or not, if not then configure your your hard drive's Jumper setting as Slave, or Cable Selected. then try to Reconnect both Hard Disk and try to Start computer. After successful and Normal Start-up open My Computer and browse Drives from which you want to copy your data on to your preferred destination. This is one of the best and cheapest way to transfer your data from one Hard drive to Another. try it.