Horror story - starting over - hdwe. advice please

Question

My tale of woe:
I was working at a desk and my early 2008 Macbook Pro inadvertantly touched a metal lamp on the desk, right at the left edge of the lid/display. A HUGE spark issued forth and the MBP shut down. Attempts to restart it yielded only a glowing pilot light, no startup chime, no HD spinning sounds. Being a few months out of AppleCare, I took it to an Apple Service place and they said that it would cost between $1200 - $1400 to fix without going into specifics. Their plan was just to start replacing parts, starting with the main logic board. Their repair estimate was about twice what the machine is (was) worth, so I went out and bought a near identical one, which I'm using now, and it's fine.
I do not know why this huge spark would have happened - this was bigger than any static electricity spark. It actually "burned" (melted?) the case where it touched the lamp. The lamp was perhaps wired with reverse polarity? Anyway, it is scary to think that the metal cases on these MBP's is so vulnerable to this kind of damage and I know from experience that it's probably no better than a 50/50 chance that a lamp will have been wired for correct polarity. This could have happened to anyone. If it had been plastic, nothing would have happened.
My questions:
So, now, I'm trying to get rebuilt and back on my feet and back in action with the 'new' replacement MBP.
Since I had not done regular back-ups, I'm wondering what is the best way to retrieve data from the old HD (I don't know if it was fried or not, but I would at least like to try to salvage some things from it.) I have a Time Machine back up from a month or so ago, it won't be the end of the world if I can't salvage anything from the burnt MBP HD, but I would like to try as I know there is newer data I'd like to salvage. My bad for not running backups more often.
1. Should I take the HD out of the burnt MBP and put it in a portable enclosure? if so, I need recommendations on selecting one, if anyone can advise. If I do pop it in an enclosure, am I at risk of losing data simply by moving it an outside enclosure? I once took a 3.5" IDE HD full of data out of an older Mac and put it in an external case and it completely messed up the catalogue and tree and I was never able to get all of the data off of it, was not able to go back, the cheap-o case somehow would only see it as a 120 GB drive when it was actually a 180 GB). If someone would be so kind, I need specific, detailed advice on putting this drive from the MBP into something that will allow me to read whatever data that is still on it.
2. Should I take the old drive out and try to install it in this 'new' MBP so that I could back it up to an external drive, run one more Time Machine backup? or am I risking anything? if the drive was damaged or ruined by that electrical spark, am I at risk of damaging the 'new' MBP by putting it in. They are the exact same generation of machines.
3. Another question, I authorized this new MBP with iTunes Store, but how do I de-authorize the old one, now that it's never going to work again?
Sorry if this is too many disparate questions - please excuse me. I'm in crisis mode here, trying to get back to a functioning state.

Answer 1

Mr. Jingle wrote:
Hey tjk,
Do either of these sound like the right enclosures for my drive? They're for IDE but my System Profiler lists the drive as a Serial ATA? I should know the difference, but I don't.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707116
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Macally-2.5in-USB-2.0-Slim-Aluminum-Enclosure/5 61373.aspx#TS
The other enclosures are mostly for SATA drives, which I don't think I have in this MBP, do I? (early 2008)
IDE or ATA is the older version. MBPs use SATA (Serial ATA). The enclosures you linked will not work.
Here's one example from OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ES2.5BPU2S/