Retrieving harddrive files from a laptop

I have a Toshiba Laptop and it will not power up any more. I took out the hard drive to retrieve my files (obviously did not back up my files enough). I have read several past discussions on this site referencing a USB hard drive case, however I can not find one. Does one end hook directly into the hard drive and the other into a USB port? Is it then just a matter of coping files over to a new hard drive? What are the file extensions to look for when retrieving MS Outlook addresses and e-mails, etc? Can you recommend a website for this info?