Saving Files from Old Hard Drive

Jineus · Mar 30, 2014

Hello! I am going off to college soon!

I have a computer about 2-3 years old. It still runs fine, but it feels slower than when I first got it, and I sometimes do torrents and stuff so there's a possibility that my computer's infected too.

But I don't want to spend another 1000$ dollars building a new computer, so I was thinking I should keep the CPU, Graphics card, and Memory (and possibly the motherboard).

This means I will need a new storage drive. But I want to keep certain things from my old storage drive. But at the same time, if I transfer the old files onto the new drive, then wouldn't my computer still be infected? How do I move certain files from the old drive onto the new old without infecting the new one?

Thank you!!

sunder25 · Mar 30, 2014

First of all scan the old drive for viruses.
Secondly, if you get a new drive install windows on that, without the old drive being in the pc, then you can safley add the old drive to the system and copy files you know are not infected to the new drive.

Pibee · Mar 30, 2014

Am I following your thinking here in that the argument is the old drive may be infected soa new drive will resolve the problem?

After 3 years and downloads that may pose a security risk and wear and tear the OS can become cluttered and simply not run like a fresh install What I'm getting at is save all your important and useful data and then reinstall the OS. Once you have installed an anti-virus prog reintroduce the data files making sure they're scanned as you do.

sunder25 · Mar 30, 2014

Pibee :

Haha wow i misread this.
I thought he wanted to buy a new drive for space and just make sure possible viruses on his old drive dont get transfered when he copies data.

Pibee · Mar 30, 2014

Sunder25 he he happens to me all the time LOL Cheers

Jineus · Mar 31, 2014

Hello!

To clarify what I'm asking: I want to throw away my old hard drive, because I think it may have viruses in it. But I want to salvage some files that are saved on my old hard drive. How can I salvage those files without also transferring the viruses to the new hard drive?

I'm kind of a newb when it comes to computers, so I'll repeat the procedure below in case I got it wrong:

1) Get new Hard drive
2) On the new hard drive, install OS, and anti-virus/scanner (while the old hard drive is still installed/plugged onto the computer)
3) transfer files from old hard drive to new hard drive, but have scan the files as they are being transferred.

So now questions:
1) Is it possible to have OS installed in both hard drives?
2) Will any viruses jump from one hard drive to the other if they're both connected to the same computer?
3) How do I transfer files and make sure the files are being scanned as they are being transferred?

Thanks a lot!!

PCgenie · Mar 31, 2014

don't have the old drive connected as you are installing OS, just to be safe. only use old drive once you have OS installed on the new drive and it has an antivirus program, a good antivirus to use that's free is avast.

You are probably better off just having the OS on the new drive as you can only use one at a time.
Viruses are capable of passing from one drive to another which is why is is better not to have the drive connected as you install the OS due to the fact that there would be no antivirus program to stop it.
Before you transfer the files scan the old drive using an antivirus software and transfer files that show up clean, or before you copy a file over just scan it with the antivirus, with avast you can just right click a file and select scan with avast.

Pibee · Mar 31, 2014

So now questions:
1) Is it possible to have OS installed in both hard drives?

_ Yes but as underscored by Jenius above best to disconnect the old drive when you install the OS on the new drive, which will also make it easier for the Bios to assign the new drive as the primary boot drive during that installation.

2) Will any viruses jump from one hard drive to the other if they're both connected to the same computer?

- The risk of contamination to the new drive from the old is real if you don't ensure the files you intend to transfer are clean and free of malicious data. You could in fact as it stands run an anti-virus prog on the old drive now. There are several free anti-virus progs and if you want the greatest possible insurance (though some may rightly call this overkill) install one of those free progs run it then remove it and install a different one and run it.

3) How do I transfer files and make sure the files are being scanned as they are being transferred?

-The way I would go about this is to install the anti-virus prog on the drive as it stands and scan. When you've finished the clean install of the OS on the new drive as well as having installed an anti-virus prog, reconnect the old drive. Generally anti-virus progs offer a right click feature with a command to scan an individual file or folder. Though tedious and if you have a lot of files to transfer laborious this strategy would in practice ensure the greatest degree of assurance you've got a clean data.

Paperdoc · Mar 31, 2014

The accumulated advice here is good, assuming you want to proceed with the original plan. That is, buy new HDD, disconnect old HDD, new Install of Windows, Install antivirus software and run, re-connect old HDD and run anti-virus scan on it. BUT before beginning the copying of old files, there is one step missing.

You cannot just COPY all the files of your APPLICATION SOFTWARE (e.g., MS Office, Firefox, Adobe Reader, etc.). You actually need to INSTALL all those apps again to your new HDD, and that usually means you need the original Installation disk to do that. The Install process writes special entries about each respective app to the Windows Registry. Your newly-installed Windows on the new HDD does NOT have those entries, and they cannot be simply copied from old HDD to new. AFTER you have re-installed all the apps, you can copy you old data files and folders from old HDD to new.

Once you've done all your copying, I suggest you disconnect the old HDD for a while but keep it untouched. That is just in case you discover later that you missed copying something and need to get it from the old HDD.

After you're sure you do not need anything from the old HDD, you could wipe it clean and re-use it. BUT I do not mean just re-Format! The simplest cleaning process is called a Zero Fill, done with a utility app. It will write zeros to absolutely EVERY sector of the drive - so if you do this, be VERY sure that you do it ONLY on the old HDD you're trying to wipe! This completely removes any old data from the drive, including anything that might be malware. As a side benefit, this process also triggers a background maintenance action inside the HDD unit itself to find and replace any weak Sectors so that, when done, the HDD appears to be in perfectly new condition. When that is finished you need to Initialize that old HDD, just as if it were band new and empty from the factory, so you can use it again.

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Saving Files from Old Hard Drive

Jineus

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sunder25

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Pibee

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sunder25

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Pibee

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Jineus

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PCgenie

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Pibee

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Paperdoc

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