Jeffgo to a pc shop and buy a craddle ,or you can open up your pc and connect your other hard drive .This will give you access to your data and you will be able to get the info that you need.I dont know what windows program you are running but i would of thought that you will boot it up ok.
Sorry jeff (its been a long time since i talked about pc's)Its a caddy look at this link.h ttp://buy.maplin.co.uk/Free_UK_Delivery/3_5_inch_External_Caddy_with_Hi-Speed_USB_2_0_and_FireWire_Connections_44727/3_5_inch_External_Caddy_with_Hi-Speed_USB_2_0_and_FireWire_Connections_44727.htm
Jeff what it does is turn your old hard drive into a mass storage device in my computer.It should be plug and play and no need to make it a slave and the pc will not try to boot from it making any conflicts and freezing up.Just put it in the caddy which is very simple and plug it into your usb socket.then explore the new drive in my computer and go through the files and move the ones you want to keep to a safe folder on your new hdd.when finished formatt the old hdd and use it as a back up drive ,if your pc ever crashes all this data will not be effected.
Take the hard drive and connect it to a new PC as slave, turn on your PC, it will detect the new hard drive, it's gonna be safe after you open any infected document, so we have to think that all the files are infected, so, desinfect the hard drive with your favorite anti-virus, like any other hard drive.Hope it helps.
without being there it's hard to explain but heres another link that can i am wondering if the pc is trying to boot from old hdd or if your bios is set up right.h ttp://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm