Thanks all for your replies.

What after copying all my data to a healthy drive? Any recommendations please. I don't hear any noise from the drive physically it looks ok but logically I guess there are some problems.

I'll be disappointed if you don't reply to my earlier question... I'm looking forward to reading what problems people have when using 2.5" SATA drives in desktop systems.

Oh sorry I didn't save those links..the only place I remember I last visited was this forum where as user sumilux says not to do
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/245289-32-connecting-sata-disk-desktop-internal-sata

Thanks for that info.

That whole thread at the Tom's Hardware link you gave, is an unfortunate example of vague, ambiguous, and sometimes plain wrong comments. Note how that user "sumilux" has his comment downvoted to "-2", so members on that forum disagree with his assertions. I can think of several possible explanations for his specific issues including faulty (or misused) Molex to SATA power adapters. For example, there has been at least one user on this forum, who managed to reverse the Molex power plug as it was inserted into their adapter, and as a result they damaged their drive.

None of this changes the fact that the 2.5" and 3.5" SATA power connectors are identical, as both unknown and I are telling you (2.5" drives use only the +5V and don't connect to the +12V input; 3.5" drives use both the +5V and +12V). You can believe us or not, as you wish. FYI here is a thread on another website explaining how the power (and data) connections are interchangeable between 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives:

http://www.mp3car.com/general-hardware-discussion/111605-2-5-sata-drive-to-3-5-sata.html

Some comments on that Tom's Hardware thread are good examples that there are risks with DIY, especially when those performing the DIY don't have the skills, experience, tested equipment, troubleshooting abilities etc. to understand and reduce those risks (and to calmly troubleshoot any problems that do occur). Unless you accept those DIY risks, and are confident in your abilities and equipment, then you may want to reconsider trying a DIY recovery, especially since you earlier asked for "guarantees" about your recovery. If you cannot guarantee your own skills, experience, equipment, understanding, troubleshooting etc., then you cannot guarantee your success!

Without going into too many details at this stage (as I could be wasting my time), in answer to your questions about what to do after the clone - IMHO there are several options, partly depending on how successful the cloning process is (i.e. whether the filesystem is usuable in the clone or not). Expect to need lots of free disk space on your good, working disks (to hold a copy/copies of the clone and any recovered files from later stages of the process). Sometimes, to make things easier if you're using Windows, an empty (working) disk of at least 320GB (in your case) may be useful, if you're lucky and recovery software isn't necessary. As I said before, there are several different approaches - and I'm not making any guarantees!

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your help and support in this regard.