I had a laptop with a failed motherboard (Operating system is Windows XP and the file type is NTFS)  I removed the Toshiba HD and installed it into a USB HD enclosure made by Adaptec.  I connected it to my HP laptop which also has an file type of NTFS therefore compatible and a Windows XP OS.  The attached drive is recognized and I can view its properties but I cannot explore the file structure.  It is not detected as a HD by my laptop.  Under the control panel all I can do under computer management besides read the properties is to remove the partition.  As I need to off load the valuable files I have on this disk I do not want to reformat the drive at this point.  How do I safely get my laptopto properly identify this external drive so I might copy the files to the laptop?

If this is possible, what is best way then to convert this disk to just a pure data storage disk by removing the operating system that still probably resides on the external disk.  (External disk is 40 G IBM Travelmaster and the laptop HD is Fujitsu.  The used portion of the external disk including the OS is smaller than the unused size of the laptp so I am presuming all the files can be copied.

Any help is appreciated.

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