Thanks all, some fantastic info.

I already have two 500gb external drives for storage, what I really was looking to do was use a box so I could transfer files from the old one that I haven't got onto the new one.

Obviously I don't want the program files as I was running WinXP on both machines, so it seems it's a goer, if I can sort out the IDE and SATA bit.

Anyway I'll have a go and see what happens, if I mess it up and loose everything on the old drive it's not life threatening so it's worth the risk...........I think.

whb