TOSHIBA LAPTOP HARD DRIVE CRASH ACCESS QUERY

Laptop hard drive, after making scratchy noise, died. Unable to retrieve any info. Replaced Hard Drive, re-install all fine. Purchased USB-IDE cable and connected old HD.
In Device Manager, the HD id shows under “disk drives” as Toshiba MK6022GAX usb Device. Properties box states that this drive is working properly.
Also appears in Explorer as Local Disk (E:)and the “plus” sign, which denotes content.
Auto Play dialogue box also appears, but when I try to open (E:) system slows and nothing happens.
So, have I lost all my data? Or would a power adapter help to power hard drive?
I cannot afford recovery services (I am a student at the present) Any ideas?
(xp o/s is loaded onto new hard drive as well as the old “external one)