Transferring/Reformatting old HDD hard drive to new Mac without losing files
I have a 2008-2009 Macbook that no longer works, but I have an excessive amount of pictures and music that I'd like to transfer to my new Mac, and eventually an external hard drive. I bought a 3.2 HDD enclosure for the old hard drive, but it needs to be reformatted for me to view the files. I tried plugging the enclosure into my HP laptop to back it up before erasing everything for the reformat, but it runs on Windows 10 and won't let me download the software. Which ultimately led to the purchase of the new Mac.
So, is it possible for me to reformat the old drive without losing everything? or possibly recover the files after reformatting?
*The old MacBook won't turn on (replaced the battery and it sounds like the fan is trying to spin but not doing anything else and only showing a black screen) so backing up to it or using another app to back up the hard drive on that computer is out.
*The HP laptop is out of date so I can't really do anything with it. I will be transferring everything from that hard drive to an external hard drive as well. (Hopefully that's a little easier.)