Dodgy external drive

I have an old 320Gb external hard disk that is not behaving itself. It is making odd noises and I can access it sometimes. I think I will have to buy another external hard disk, this time a 2 1/2 inch one and when I can access my old hard disk copy the files elsewhere. I fear then I can assign the old hard disk to the circular filing cabinet (this is a term for the trash can, garbage can, or what the Brits call the dustbin).

This dodgy hard disk has been causing my computer to hang. The disk sounds like a 747 on take off at times and this cannot be good. I am trying to extract files from it on an old computer. I find it very disturbing that it causes this computer to crash. Even using alt-ctrl-del does nothing. I fear this old hard disk is definitely destined for the circular filing cabinet.

In 1990 I helped a woman buy a computer with a *big* hard disk, 20 Mb ! The computer world has made huge advances since then.