External to Internal HDD Installation

I have a 500GB External HDD that dosn’t function that well anymore.
I don’t really mind throwing it out, i just want to get some data off it. around 100GB of it.
But when i plug it in through the USB port, it takes ages to recognize and i have to keep on switching the HDD on and off untill it does.
Which is a real pain, and sometimes the HDD will turn it self-off while copying the files……
So I’m thinking of putting it into my PC while i copy the data.
But would this affect any of my other hardware on my PC?
I’m just afraid that putting in this broken HDD would break my computer.
Answer #1
It has as much of a chance of messing up your computer as an external hard drive that’s having problems would – none (or at least not enough to worry, I don’t know if there are special circumstances :p).
As long as you’re not running anything from it, you’re simply treating it as storage for files, and if the storage goes away then all that happens is the files aren’t accessable.
Answer #2
Take it out of its External housing then plug it into your PC
THe only problem you may face is that is might be a laptop harddrive (as its 500GB and its sorta old (as you said “dosn’t function that well anymore”) It will most probably be a 3 1/2 hdd which is fine for PCs)
It wont mess up any of your other hardware at the very most you PC will beep telling you there is a harddrive problem (but it will not effect the other HDD)

Also if you are going to get rid of it remember to recycle
Answer #3
OK thanks! Time to go and buy a SATA cable then!
Answer #4
If you external has a separate power supply you could try another one of them if you can get hold of one..
Answer #5
But which would be cheaper and more effective?