Transferring Old Hard Drive Data to new installed Hard Drive

[Sup3rknova]

Ok all. Had a hard drive failing/failure. I am having my bad hard drive replaced with a bigger hard drive. (New Obviously) I have an iMac. (1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 17-inch) To have my data transferred from the old drive will cost over a hundred bucks more. I am trying to save money but transferring it myself. All im looking to transfer is my photos. I did not have an external drive but i WILL purchse one now. My question, (to save some money) is how would i transfer my old pictures from my old drive, too my new installed hard drive. Can i use USB? Firewire? Any diagrams anyone could find or post is helpful.

 

[Sheeds]

As far as I know, you'll have to buy an external case to house your old drive, and that will allow you to look through your old files, and even use Migration Assistant to duplicate it onto your new drive if desired, to keep all your settings and files.

 

[Sup3rknova]

Sounds simple enough. I assume the housing has ports or cables to plug into my imacs usb or firewire?