second hard drive installation

[qandaseeker]

hi, i have a external 3.5" hard drive but the mini usb socket is broken! to replace this requires soldering which i dont want to do due to taking risks. i was thinking of installing it in my desktop pc, but im really worried because if i install it, will it erase everything inn the hard drive? i dont have any other hard drive to back it up because its a 500GB.
buying an enclousre may be a solution. but they are quite expensive.

please advisse me on what i should do.

[ChuckFickens]

enclosures aren't expensive really

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=s earch-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=3.5+drive+enc losure&x=0&y=0

Make sure you get one that matches the drive type (either SATA or IDE... Though with a 500gb it's probably SATA)

But just plugging it in as an internal drive should also be perfectly safe, it will just appear as an extra drive under my computer and work OK complete with the data thats already one it.

if it was going to erase the data it will prompt you "are you sure you wish to format this drive" anyhow