Old computer (windows8) died. Need to put old harddrive in new windows 10 computer as a secondary. Can't read it now
- Thread starter Mary_74
- Start date
Solution
Hey there, Mary_74. Happy New Year and welcome to the community! 
What do you mean by saying "did that but now the files are empty"? Did you manage to access the hard drive and it showed no files? When you say your old computer died, what exactly do you mean? Do you think that there might be a possibility that the HDD could have failed as well?
I'd recommend that you check Disk Management and post a screenshot of what you see there about the HDD and its partitions (you can use imgur.com to upload the image). Here's how to access is: How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives. If the drive is recognized there and the partitions are healthy, you just might need to assign it a new drive letter and here's how...
What do you mean by saying "did that but now the files are empty"? Did you manage to access the hard drive and it showed no files? When you say your old computer died, what exactly do you mean? Do you think that there might be a possibility that the HDD could have failed as well?
I'd recommend that you check Disk Management and post a screenshot of what you see there about the HDD and its partitions (you can use imgur.com to upload the image). Here's how to access is: How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives. If the drive is recognized there and the partitions are healthy, you just might need to assign it a new drive letter and here's how...
Boogieman_WD
Judicious
- Jul 31, 2014
- 6,050
- 2
- 35,960
Hey there, Mary_74. Happy New Year and welcome to the community!
What do you mean by saying "did that but now the files are empty"? Did you manage to access the hard drive and it showed no files? When you say your old computer died, what exactly do you mean? Do you think that there might be a possibility that the HDD could have failed as well?
I'd recommend that you check Disk Management and post a screenshot of what you see there about the HDD and its partitions (you can use imgur.com to upload the image). Here's how to access is: How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives. If the drive is recognized there and the partitions are healthy, you just might need to assign it a new drive letter and here's how to do that: How to change the drive letter assignment in Windows.
You could also try to access your data via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if the HDD is properly recognized this way and if you can get to your files, so that you can back them up. Another option would be to try out some data recovery programs: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
You could also try connecting the drive to a different computer, or at least to a different SATA port with different cables on yours, to see if the issue reoccurs.
Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
What do you mean by saying "did that but now the files are empty"? Did you manage to access the hard drive and it showed no files? When you say your old computer died, what exactly do you mean? Do you think that there might be a possibility that the HDD could have failed as well?
I'd recommend that you check Disk Management and post a screenshot of what you see there about the HDD and its partitions (you can use imgur.com to upload the image). Here's how to access is: How to access Disk Management in Windows to manage hard drives. If the drive is recognized there and the partitions are healthy, you just might need to assign it a new drive letter and here's how to do that: How to change the drive letter assignment in Windows.
You could also try to access your data via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if the HDD is properly recognized this way and if you can get to your files, so that you can back them up. Another option would be to try out some data recovery programs: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm.
You could also try connecting the drive to a different computer, or at least to a different SATA port with different cables on yours, to see if the issue reoccurs.
Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
Jack Warden
Reputable
- Mar 26, 2015
- 112
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- 4,710
If i were you i would boot off of your old drive to start and if that doesnt work you should go to geek squad as it is probably your hard drive that conked out
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