Finding Data from an old computer HD

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Computernate

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Aug 14, 2013
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Hi Everyone. I have a new Laptop, and two dead desktops. I connected two drives as external drives - but the computer doesn't see all the volume - and none of the data. ...Is there software or hardware that can help? ...My guess is that the new computer can't read the older drives format - Sata 1, 32 gb Windows XP...etc.
 
Solution
bigwoofer
FAT32 is a different format that NTFS. NTFS is the more stable of the 2 formats. FAT32 for computer hard drives pretty much went unused after windows NT/2000/XP and beyond made NTFS available. Most flash drives/discs seem to be FAT32 for compatibility though. Operating systems on NTFS can see and navigate FAT32 drives but not vice-versa.

OK, try initializing the drive, it should be an option when you right click it. It has to be initialized for you to navigate it in Windows. The operating system will warn you when you're about to do something that will lose the data.
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Computernate

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Aug 14, 2013
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10,510
Added Details - I can find the drives on my computer and named the drives. The computer only sees a fraction of the volumes and none of the Data I want to retrieve. Formating the drives will kill the data, so I'm frustrated.
 
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Computernate

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Aug 14, 2013
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10,510


Will filling the volume format the drive - erasing the data? I've only done this with new drives - never with an old drive where I want to save the existing files.
 
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Computernate

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Aug 14, 2013
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Thank you for your patience. It's much appreciated. I went in and tried every way I know how to populate the volume - but after clicking on populate it's saying: disk 2 - type unknown; status - not initialized; capacity - 0; unallocated - 0; reserved space - 0 Checks on the disk say it's healthy.
 
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Computernate

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Aug 14, 2013
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I looked further in properties. The other discs are all NTFS. This disc is identified as FAT32. I'll google that to see what it means. But perhaps this is part of the problem?
 
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bigwoofer

bigwoofer

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Aug 14, 2013
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FAT32 is a different format that NTFS. NTFS is the more stable of the 2 formats. FAT32 for computer hard drives pretty much went unused after windows NT/2000/XP and beyond made NTFS available. Most flash drives/discs seem to be FAT32 for compatibility though. Operating systems on NTFS can see and navigate FAT32 drives but not vice-versa.

OK, try initializing the drive, it should be an option when you right click it. It has to be initialized for you to navigate it in Windows. The operating system will warn you when you're about to do something that will lose the data.
 
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Solution
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Computernate

Honorable
Aug 14, 2013
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10,510


Thanks again for being so kind. I'm not quite here yet. When I try to initialize it's saying "The device is not ready", regardless of which option I check off. So sorry for dragging this out. But I am learning something and appreciate what you've shared so far.
 
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bigwoofer

bigwoofer

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Aug 14, 2013
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What happens when you put the drives back in the old desktops? If they'll boot up, remove the passwords from the operating system and try again. I've noticed that's the only way I can reliably access data on drives is if there's no password on the drives you're trying to access.
 
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