OK, so I bought an external hard drive a couple of years ago, but after moving it around without protecting it, a part of the connection (a little metal piece that leads into where you plug in the USB2 cable) is bent, meaning that my computer cannot pickup the connection to the drive very well, usually not long enough to transfer anything out of there. I have a bunch of music, tv shows, and movies on there, and want them back. I'm pretty sure there's nothing wrong with the actual memory or drive in there. I just need to know what I need to buy. I'm guessing a case for an external hard drive? Any suggestions or follow up questions are appreciated.
Yes, an external drive case should be all you need. You just need to make sure the case has the same internal connections (to the hard drive) that the current one does and that it has USB to the computer (which shouldn't be an issue).
If it is really "old" then the IDE data cable is the spec you need to confirm. I would crack the case and see if I could just replace the cable...
If your going to have to take it apart the hassle free solution is to just get an external enclosure. They come in IDE or SATA formats. Handy things to have around. I had a dead hard drive that wouldn't show up in bios but I was able to read it in an external enclosure & take my files of it. I have a Startech one & I'd recommend it.