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I have a similar problem.
Something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SATA-IDE-to-USB-HD-DVD-RW-Converter-Power-Adapter-Cable-/160623039145?hash=item2565e112a9:m:mJq7SP7sNaDoVaA-zL1HyYA
(I don't have one of these, it's just a suggestion, no idea if it's any good but for £10 it's worth a punt.)
Allows you to get data off 2.5" laptop HDD (PATA), 3.5" HDD (PATA) and SATA HDDs with handy power connector too.
That allows you to plug the drive in to a USB port, hopefully mount it (Windows or OSX) and copy the data off.
When you're sure you've got everything you can then use something like DBAN to overwrite the entire drive and then get it recycled properly.
I've got about 15 drives lying around that I need to inspect, copy off files and then recycle. I should really try and do one a week whilst working from home.
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Greenbank
I have accumulated a large number of internal hard drives I've removed from desktops and laptops over the years when I've upgraded. Unless they've been knocked about or magnetised they will mostly still have their OS installed (various flavours of Windows and Mac OS) along with bits of data. I'd like rid of them but first want to check to see if there's anything on them I'd like to keep (probably not but just in case...)
Is there a way to do this easily? In an ideal world I'd imagine just getting some kind of USB to SATA connection and opening up a finder/explorer window and drag keep-worthy files across to the current OS, but the fact that they have an installed OS on them probably makes that a non-starter.
I can view from either a Windows 10 or El Capitan machine. I have USB 3, Thunderbolt, Firewire, and possibly eSata connections across both of them.
What else do I need? Is it even possible or will I need to replace the drive each time and copy to a thumb drive?