Thank you all once again.
Have done a long-winded temporary job by copying/pasting the most important to Word and saving that but will try the suggested methods.
SD ... Why 12 HDs? Excellent guess - mainly a job lot indeed, having gone to a computer bits auction and had an attack of over-enthusiasm!!
As a one-time Canadian friend used to say, "If a little is good, a lot is better!!" Mind you, at that time HDs were considerably pricier than now.