Question about retrieving info on a HDD

[JustinSane]

I am trying to get a friends pictures, music, and documents off of a hard drive that was in their old computer. I was going to just plug it into their new pc but the mobo doesn't have an IDE port. So a few questions before I plug the thing into one of my machines:

1. Do I need to worry about any viruses they had on the hard drive infecting my pc?

2. How do I need to go about getting info off of it? Just go to my computer and it should show up as a new drive?

3. Any recommendations?

Thanks a lot.

 

[InvisiBill]

1. Yes. Running any infected file on the drive will be just like running an infected file on your own drive. However, the system will not be booting via the files on that drive, so you should probably be ok as long as you don't explicitly run anything on the drive.

2. Yup.

3. You could also get one of those USB to SATA/PATA adapters for a few bucks. I got this one for $7 with a drive purchase. Then you can plug the drive into their new PC and copy everything directly (as opposed to using your own PC as the middleman).

 

[JustinSane]

1. Yes. Running any infected file on the drive will be just like running an infected file on your own drive. However, the system will not be booting via the files on that drive, so you should probably be ok as long as you don't explicitly run anything on the drive.

2. Yup.

3. You could also get one of those USB to SATA/PATA adapters for a few bucks. I got this one for $7 with a drive purchase. Then you can plug the drive into their new PC and copy everything directly (as opposed to using your own PC as the middleman).

Thank you for the advice. I ordered one of those adapters.