Help! Retreiving files from old Hardrive

[WoodManGamer]

Hi all,

 

My computer recently broke and I bought a new one just keeping my old Sound Card and Graphics Card. My mod and also many GB of downloaded mods I dread having to download again are on my old HDD. The old HDD had a bit of a problem, as in, it was trying to repair windows but due to damaged CPU AND a failed PSU it never got around to it. It is a SATA drive and I just want to get my files off I don't want it to boot up its broken windows install or anything. The files I want are not saved on the same partition as windows.

 

What do I do, do I just plug it in? How do I make sure it doesn't boot up? I just want the files, then it is no use to me anymore so I will unplug it right after I get my files. Many years ago I had to do a master/slave thing with HDD and switching jumpers etc, but these are SATA drives so don't have that (not that I can remember how to do that anyway).

 

Cheers!

[micalov]

As long as you do not shift your drive cables around plugging it in should be fine, if it doubt, us boot select menu (by default its f8 on most motherboards I think).

[Dan3345]

You need to have another HDD with windows installed on it and then set the computer to boot from that drive. Then plug in the drive with your old files on it. The computer may not recognize the drive at first (as in its not there in computer). If this is the case go to "Computer management" in start and then click on "disk management." If the drive is plugged into the motherboard correctly you should see the drive here. It should be listed as "inactive." Right click on it and set it to active or whatever variation on that word it says. The drive will probably be labeled E now. Assuming you were not forced to format (which I think you can decline and continue if it does) I believe you can now safely remove files from the drive without being forced to boot from the damaged copy of windows.

 

Things to consider: The data on the drive will most likely be corrupt to some degree. Any installed programs will not work as they no longer have keys in the registry. Also obviously this process requires two hard-drives. The damaged one, and a working one with a boot-able copy of windows. I will be back later to help more if you need it.

[WoodManGamer]

Thanks very much guys! I'll give it a go tomorrow and see what happens. Sounds straight forward as long as the drive isn't completely ruined (it was a power surge I think killed my old PC, even though it was surge protected) :confused:

[ginnyfizz]

Good luck with your retrieval! What Dan3345 describes is what had to be done with my old HDD recently after my epic hardware fail. I had to reinstall most, but not all, programmes but I was prepared for that, but all stuff like Documents and Downloads was fine. You should be OK if you follow the intructions that have been given in this thread.

 

Edit - OMG another power surge victim, that's what we think did for my rig, I had a surge tower but it was getting old and...one new CPU, MOBO, PSU and HDD later it's fine.

[WoodManGamer]

Thanks all! I finally got around to doing it today and am happy to say I managed to recover all my important files (and all my Skyrim stuff) :thumbsup:

[Dan3345]

Good to hear!