Can't access files on my laptop harddrive

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lowveldbaron

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Sep 30, 2014
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Hi. i have an hp 655 with a 320 gigabytes harddrive. my laptop was a bit unstable and wanted to format the harddrive and re install a fresh windows 8 pro. So i opened the laptop, removed its harddrive and connected it to another laptop to save my important files and connected back the harddrive to my 655 to completely format and install a new windows. after installing the windows, i removed the harddrive from the hp 655 connect it as an external to copy back the files i had saved to in another laptop. Unfortunately i did a "cut and paste" to the harddrive. Now when installed the harddrive back to my hp655 it boots normally but i cant access any of my old file. The used space indicates they are there but i cant access them even if i search the harddrive there are no matches. Please help.
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Hey lowveldbaron. Go to Disk Management and see what it show for the partition with your old data. What type of file system does it show? If it's raw, then I'm afraid you should try with data recovery software to retrieve your data. In that case you shouldn't try to write anything on the drive so that you don't damage the already existing files. You could also try connecting the HDD to the other laptop to see if you'd be able to copy/paste the data back to it (but it's doubtful that this will work).

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey lowveldbaron. Go to Disk Management and see what it show for the partition with your old data. What type of file system does it show? If it's raw, then I'm afraid you should try with data recovery software to retrieve your data. In that case you shouldn't try to write anything on the drive so that you don't damage the already existing files. You could also try connecting the HDD to the other laptop to see if you'd be able to copy/paste the data back to it (but it's doubtful that this will work).

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Boogieman_WD
 
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lowveldbaron

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Sep 30, 2014
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Thanks Boogieman, i checked the hdd and it was raw then had to resort to recovery at least i was able to recover my data. i just have to sort out the data since the files are named as "recovered data1....."
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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I hope all is OK with your files. This mainly depends on the recovery software you've used. Hopefully it worked out properly and everything's there. For a more reliable solution I'd recommend a data recovery company before reformatting the drive if your data is damaged or not properly retrieved, but unfortunately that option could be a bit expensive.
 
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lowveldbaron

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Sep 30, 2014
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yes it work the data i was more worried about are the photos they are all there.thanks a lot. I have another question, i am at a college and sometimes i install windows on my colleague's laptops and recently i have a problem when trying to install windows 8 pro on a hard drive with a GTP partition system or something like that. it just says "can't install windows on this hard drive" Is there any way i can install windows without formatting to NTFS.
 
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