I would try taking the original main hard drive that crashed and running it in an external enclosure ... with USB connection. Sometimes hard drives crash but aren't 100% dead yet.
"I'm not dead
yet!"--Monty Python
and the Holy Grail
Perhaps the boot sector crashed but the rest of the disk can be read, so accessing it as a secondary drive might work.
I ought to make sure that you're aware of a product that was sold by the
CompUSA brick-&-mortar stores:
ULTRA USB 2.0-to-IDE|SATA Cable Adapter
(Part ULT40112; UPC 22769-40112):
• IDE either 2.5-in. or 3.5-in.
• 480 Mb/s. data rate (i.e., presumably USB2).
• External-pwr. adapter.
• Separate a.c. cable & plug.
"The [...] adapter turns any SATA or IDE hard drive into a convenient external drive. Easily transfer files from computer or notebook, back up files, or store large file archives on hard drives."
Thus, without including on an "
enclosure", it performs all of the necessary functions. Just keep the drive on an electronically appropriate surface.
There might be an issue with its claim of compatibility with "Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
(TM)/Windows 7", because it fails to mention
linux. But there don't seem to be any barriers to use of linux; in particular, there don't seem to be any h.w.|s.w. drivers
built in to the product.
I suppose that access via a linux system would be required to interpret your own disks'
directory structures.
Otherwise, it might suffice to locate a coöperative person with a Windows PC and at least 1 USB port. Much preferably 2 USB ports, so you could copy everything via
direct pass-thro' to an external DVD drive. That would alleviate concerns that you would be guzzling the coöperative person's disk space. And because your "everything" is huge, it might make good sense to test the set-up by finding then copying the most
critical files directly to a
USB key. I routinely copied files from a camera or SDHC-carrier via
direct pass-thro' to USB keys using XP Pro (XP Home seems to have been crippled for that and similar tasks).