External HD not accessible

Hello Everybody, I was using Dell Inspiron 6000 with Windows XP 80gb with Hitachi Travel Star HD Model No:HTS541680J9AT00 also called 5K160 HD with 5400RPM, I accidentally broke the computer, I just dropped it, The screen was broken but It would still turn on. So i managed to get the Hard drive out from that laptop.

Then I ordered another Laptop from Dell this time Inspiron 1525 with Windows Vista Basic 160gb Intel core 2 duo T6400 @ 2.00GHZ mEMORY 3GB AND 32 BIT OPERATING SYSTEM. wHEN i WAS BUYING DELL 1525 Online I asked them if i cud get all the info from my old laptop to the new one, and they said yes just get a harddrive enclosure.

Now I got the Ultra USB 2.0 STORAGE HIGH SPEED ENCLOSURE, connected the harddrive, but 1525 wudnt read it, so with online info and help from various forums I learned that I must change from sata to ATA/IDE SO i CHANGED THAT IN BIOS, so 1525 downloaded necessary drivers, And now I can see the F:/ DRIVE IN My Computer. But When i right click to open it it wud say that there are no files, when i check the properties it wud say used space and available space as zero, but when i scan the F:/ DRIVE with mccaffee security centre it checks all the files. I have almost over 30 gb of files pics and songs in it as i was using the old laptop for over 4 years .

I just had an administrator account which was password protected in my old laptop. I would really appreciate if you can give me some ideas about how I cud get all the info from the old laptops harddrive.

I tried to download PC Inspector software, but that wud do nothing to any of the drives.
Please help me.
Waiting for your reply.

Besides several free and shareware data recovery programs available for download you can elect to boot from a live Linux cd like ubuntu or Knoppix since that will easily read various partition types and simply copy and paste files from the old to new. You first have to see each hard drive mounted however which is easy by going into Applications>computer while booted live and double click on each drive.

Immediately you will see the "can't mount drive" message while a new icon suddenly appears on the desktop for each one. Those are simply double clicked on there to end seeing two explorer like windows come up. One old tutorial explains how to use Knoppix while ubuntu will easily work as well. Computer First Aid Using Knoppix