Help on stepper drivers and programs - please

I am currently looking at a simple 2 axis position and drill application.
Two axis are need to position and the drill cycle is taken care of by a
linear operated air drill which just requires a trigger signal plus a
return signal at the end of the drill stroke before moving again.
There are a lot of simple programs out there that use the parallel port
which seems OK for my use. To try some of these out I need to actually move
a couple of steppers.
I have been told that I can use an old hard drive for the stepper and
driver.
can anyone advise on pin connections for this. I don't actually need to
drive anything only see it work at this stage.
As regards programs I have seen Ahha, Flashcut, Ability, Deskcam NCrt and
Max NC.
The two main criteria that I need are the ability to use G code and to work
in metric.
Is there any that I have missed?
Please don't suggest EMC as I'm 52 already and would like to get this
running before I retire <g>
As a LOT of people far more experienced than me can't get either Linux or
EMC running then I stand no chance.
--

Regards,
John Stevenson
Special Purpose Machines
Nottingham, England