How do I remove files from a hard drive that stopped working?

quackityhq · Jan 3, 2017

Hey guys, a few days my old hard drive stopped working, so I had to remove it from my computer, however windows is still running on my SSD, however I got a new hard drive, but it's annoying to find out what programs I should download since my computer still detects everything from my old hard drive (but even when I try to open these programs or files it says they're non existant which is logical). So I wonder if there's a way to get rid of all those files from my hard drive which isn't on my computer anymore? It's been a few days and I've found no solution.
Thanks!

chemmajorp53 · Jan 3, 2017

This is a pretty good article IMO

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/how-to/a3086/hard-drive-recovery/

quackityhq · Jan 3, 2017

chemmajorp53 :

Yeah, however I don't want to recover any data from the old hard drive, it had 1tb but nothing in it was really important, rather I want to get rid of the remaining files.

chemmajorp53 · Jan 3, 2017

Wait what kind of files are they, just a bunch of shortcuts?

quackityhq · Jan 3, 2017

chemmajorp53 :

Essentially, yeah, but apart from that, folders and everything are still there, and it's quite annoying to get rid of them one by one.

USAFRet · Jan 3, 2017

quackityhq :

There is no magic for this.
Find and delete all those shortcuts manually.

But...you will also have a BUNCH of leftover junk in the Registry and elsewhere.
Which isn't so easy to find and remove.

quackityhq · Jan 3, 2017

USAFRet :

quackityhq :

There is no magic for this.
Find and delete all those shortcuts manually.

But...you will also have a BUNCH of leftover junk in the Registry and elsewhere.
Which isn't so easy to find and remove.

Dammit, absolutely no solution at all?

chemmajorp53 · Jan 3, 2017

I mean the only real solution is to reinstall your OS, that's what I'd do. It's nice to have your computer cleaned out every once in a while IMO. You could try CCleaner or something and see how much junk it removes first though

USAFRet · Jan 3, 2017

quackityhq :

USAFRet :

Dammit, absolutely no solution at all?

You have the OS on the SSD, and programs and other junk on the HDD? And the HDD is now toast?

Just start with a clean install on the SSD. The other stuff is gone anyway.

quackityhq · Jan 4, 2017

USAFRet :

quackityhq :

You have the OS on the SSD, and programs and other junk on the HDD? And the HDD is now toast?

Just start with a clean install on the SSD. The other stuff is gone anyway.

Saved myself hours of tedious work and made a clean install, thanks for the recommendation!

McVitas · Jan 4, 2017

I was about to suggest CCleaner which would find invalid shortcuts. Maybe somebody else with similar problems would use that

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