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How to transfer data from an old HDD!


Justhavocman

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Hey guys , i've got an old HDD from my previous build ( which is now a mess  , parts lying here and there ) and it's got pretty much all of my music , games , etc etc in there! Is there a way for me to kinda plug it in to my sata and just browse through the files or something similar?

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If you have another OS installed onto a seperate drive, sure, just plug it in and boot the system up, and the second HDD should show up as "D:\" (assuming you currently have only one HDD)

 

If not, you can either buy an external USB enclosure that you can just slot the drive into and plug into a USB port (I have one of these, it saves a lot of time plugging in cables)

 

Alternatively, remove all other HDDs from a system, boot up another OS (e.g. Ubuntu), shrink the main partition (leave atleast 8GB of space for the new OS), create a partition in the free space and install the OS onto that space ONLY, and providing you haven't formatted the main area, you'll have everything there listed under "D:\" which you can transfer to a new drive, USB pen, FTP site or other storage solution.

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If you have another OS installed onto a seperate drive, sure, just plug it in and boot the system up, and the second HDD should show up as "D:\" (assuming you currently have only one HDD)

 

If not, you can either buy an external USB enclosure that you can just slot the drive into and plug into a USB port (I have one of these, it saves a lot of time plugging in cables)

 

Alternatively, remove all other HDDs from a system, boot up another OS (e.g. Ubuntu), shrink the main partition (leave atleast 8GB of space for the new OS), create a partition in the free space and install the OS onto that space ONLY, and providing you haven't formatted the main area, you'll have everything there listed under "D:\" which you can transfer to a new drive, USB pen, FTP site or other storage solution.

 

Woah  i really feel out of my element here , the Alternative way is way too complicated for my simple understanding of computers :D! I already have my current pc rig , so i can simply just plug in the SATA and voila! the system will recognize it as another HDD?And if not could you link me that usb enclosure thingy you mentioned? :D Cheers!

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Really nothing too complicated here JT.  I'll try and help explain Euro's post.

 

Option 1

 

If you have a working rig (sounds like you do) - power it down and remove the side panel.

Find an empty SATA or IDE port (depends on type of hard drive you need to pull the files from).

Connect the old hard drive to one of the available controller ports on the motherboard using SATA or IDE cable (again depends on interface of your old drive).

Attach a power connection to the old hard drive.

Boot your PC and Windows will recognize the freshly attached hard drive and assign it a drive letter.

Use Windows Explorer to navigate it just as you would any other drive.

 

Option 2

 

Buy an external enclosure that supports the interface of your old drive (SATA or IDE)

Put your old drive in the external enclosure.

Connect USB, eSATA or Firewire between your PC and external enclosure.

Attach power cord to your external enclosure (if required) and turn it on.

Boot your PC and Windows will recognize the freshly attached hard drive and assign it a drive letter.

Use Windows Explorer to navigate it just as you would any other drive.

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Really nothing too complicated here JT.  I'll try and help explain Euro's post.

 

Option 1

 

If you have a working rig (sounds like you do) - power it down and remove the side panel.

Find an empty SATA or IDE port (depends on type of hard drive you need to pull the files from).

Connect the old hard drive to one of the available controller ports on the motherboard using SATA or IDE cable (again depends on interface of your old drive).

Attach a power connection to the old hard drive.

Boot your PC and Windows will recognize the freshly attached hard drive and assign it a drive letter.

Use Windows Explorer to navigate it just as you would any other drive.

 

Option 2

 

Buy an external enclosure that supports the interface of your old drive (SATA or IDE)

Put your old drive in the external enclosure.

Connect USB, eSATA or Firewire between your PC and external enclosure.

Attach power cord to your external enclosure (if required) and turn it on.

Boot your PC and Windows will recognize the freshly attached hard drive and assign it a drive letter.

Use Windows Explorer to navigate it just as you would any other drive.

 

Just going ahead plugging it right in won't cause any software or hardware problems right?  :rolleyes:

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Just make sure you turn the rig off first before plugging it in  :lol:

 

It's always good practice to turn your system off before removing/adding any components, certain things can not only break that individual component, but also other components in the system (generally motherboards are the main victims)

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Just make sure you turn the rig off first before plugging it in  :lol:

 

It's always good practice to turn your system off before removing/adding any components, certain things can not only break that individual component, but also other components in the system (generally motherboards are the main victims)

 

 

^^^^^^  Ditto and +1

Aye aye , thank you two for the help ^^ Cheers!

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I think this is solved. If you do have an extra sata port, you can simply plug it there (with sata power of course) and you can access the file like it's another partition. Don't worry about the OS, the computer can determine the right pathway or might give you a selection on which OS to use. :) Getting an enclosure is also another option but if you don't really want to use it afterwards, that might be a waste.

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  • 5 weeks later...

You may connect multiple hard drives at a time n your PC. 1st one is master & secondary is slave, make sure that both are connected properly & detected by you PC br CMOS setup.

master and slave only apply if you have multiple drives on the same IDE cable. if its SATA or separate IDE cables it doesn't matter, also welcome to OCC

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