I want to access stuff on a loose HDD - IDE only. What are my options that doesn't involve plugging it into a different PC as a slave drive? I want to read it on the laptop I am using now. Was thinking along the lines of some sort of portable HDD case?

ah - Is this the best value thing I could probably use?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-IDE-SATA-Adaptor-Kit-2-5-3-5-Hard-Drive-HDD-/270499795070?pt=UK_Collectables_InputDevices_RL&hash=item3efb0b507e#ht_2454wt_1139

Yeah that will do the job.

You're probably not going to find one much cheaper than that as well

Need it as want to update my MPG spreadsheet, but it was on the slave drive of the PC that just died and now I am on my laptop sans data

Found the same thing for £5.99 from a UK seller (probably still from Hong Kong really....) so have bought that.

I got one of these to copy my sky+ drive - http://www.ebuyer.com/136214-plexus-usb-to-ide-sata-adapter-with-power-adapter-supports-2-5-usb245

Well, my £5.99 kit arrived today. From Hong Kong originally I think, but UK stock so only took 2 days or so. Just transferred a load of data from the HDD and am happy in the knowledge I can access any IDE/SATA drive using this kit.