bad hard drive

[damiancds]

okay,
the title may be misleading but my question is if i should by an external enclosure for a messed up computer to get all the stuff off of it,

the problem with the old computer is that i think the hard drive is messed up, first of all, when i start it up, i occasionally get disk read errors and a message saying to select boot device and what not, lately i've been getting blue screen errors,

would it be wise to get an external enclosure for this hard drive and use to grab the files off of it and use it as a backup,

basically, i'm asking if the hard drive has a possibility of working in an enclosure, besides, i could use the enclosure for my fathers old pc to transfer files to his new one

also, my old computer is trash, i built it with a friend, and it's had one problem after another

thanks for any input,

 

[KSoD]

If the hard drive is truly the issue the LAST thing you would want to do would be use it as storage or backup. Since you will never know when it will fail.

You could just use a Linux LiveCD to get the data off of it. But i really wouldn't use it for a storage or backup if you think it is failing.

 

[Lexluethar]

Pull the data off the drive and replace it. DO NOT use it as a backup drive or extra drive, you will regret it later.

Use the cheapest means you have of recovering the data. If the drive boots sometimes just burn the data to a CD/DVD or usb drive. If it isn't bootable then you can use an external enclosure to plug it into a working system VIA USB, or purchase a converter kit that will convert IDE/SATA to USB.