Killer HDD? (recovery tips pls)

Hey there Techs,

I have just tried to connect an older 1TB HDD with my PC. Turned the PC of, disconnected the DVD Drive, connected everything to the HDD and tried to turn it back on.
I couldn't turn the PC back on, thought it was odd and tried it again with out the HDD connected.
Nothing again. (I admit I panicked a little...)
Motherboard still lights up in some places, okay lets see.
Next thought, did It just kill my PSU? I switched the sata power cable into an other plug in the PSU.
Tada it works again! PC turns back on.

Soooo how do I get the data of my drive without killing my PSU further?
I think there might have been an OS on that HDD maybe a Win 7 install. But most certainly all of my childhood pictures and data from that old PC it once belonged to.

Sorry If this post feels like rambling, been awake a bit to long.

Have a tek day/night,
Lighto

I got a bud who works for the school board IT.. he has the coolest little box which can hook up any hard drive ata sata and plug in with usb ... to read write and or recover... I can't remember the name of it... but that is what i would suggest.

^ This. Try a USB or eSATA external drive dock.