Internal Hard-drive to external

Apr 8, 2018
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Thank you in advance for any guidance you are able to provide. I feel I am fairly technology savvy however, there is so much on the line with this much data I would feel more comfortable knowing ahead of time what to expect and look out for.
I purchased a new laptop and a USB 3.0 Hard-Drive Docking Station. I would like to take the hard-drive our of my old computer and use it as a storing location. The drive has thousands of embroidery designs as well as vector cutting designs and I do not want to loose any of those. I was doing to move them to a back-up, format the hard-drive and move them back so I could assess them however, the large amount of files gave a move time of over a day! I do have a back-up but I only transfer the new designs for the week so I had no idea it would take so long to move everything and I do not want to have to do that if I do not have to.
This leads me to my questions:
1)What is the best why to remove the operating system form a hard drive while keeping the data stored with in the file structure in place.

2) I would like to uninstall all software also what is the best why to accomplish this task?

3)How can I get all the straggling files that are left anytime you uninstall any program?

4) Is there anything else I need to do to get the drive ready to be used as a external drive?

5) Is there any special set-up or configuration I need to do in order to access this docking station as a drive or will it assign it a drive letter and I proceed as usual?

6) If you have a better idea on how to manage this amount of information when moving to a new computer I am always open to advice.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

 
Solution
It is possible to connect the drive internally/externally with an adapter to another computer, and delete assorted unwanted directories, including normally critical protected/and/or hidden WIndows directories/folders from there....

It'd be easier to take what you need from it, quick format it (can't be done from a system running Windows from that drive), then restore what you wish to store on to that drive...

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
I can see a major flaw in your approach. It is clear that all the data (designs, etc.) on the HDD are particularly valuable to you, and you do NOT ever want to lose them. Yet you have absolutely NO backups to guard against any failure or corruption of that HDD unit.

I assume that the docking station you bought has only one socket, so you cannot use it to connect two HDD's to the laptop at the same time. You should buy another station PLUS a new HDD, preferably one larger than the size of the old HDD. Or, buy a complete external HDD of suitable size. Also some relatively simple and inexpensive backup software. Then to start, make a backup of ALL of the data, plus any installed application software, from the old HDD to the new one. Disconnect the new one and set it aside.

Now the old one has an OS and some junk you don't want, but ALL of the data you want is backed up safely, right? I suggest then that you use a utility like DBAN on the old HDD to wipe it completely clean using a Zero Fill tool. WARNING! This tool destroys all data on the drive, so be absolutely SURE that you make it work ONLY on the old HDD in the docking station!! This operation re-writes everywhere, so it takes time, and you need patience. It will wipe out everything, PLUS it will trigger a self-testing and repair utility that is totally interior to the HDD. As long as the HDD has no serious hardware problems, the result will be a HDD that has been fully tested and has NO Bad Sectors and NO old data or software. You can then Initialize it as an empty data-only (not bootable) HDD, ready for anything. THEN you can use your backup software to restore all your old data from the new HDD (it will need to be re-connected, of course).

Now you have TWO full copies of all your valuable data. You disconnect the new HDD and store it safely (preferable in a different location) and continue to use the old HDD in the docking station as your major data storage place. From time to time you dig out the backup unit and use the software to do an INCREMENTAL backup to it, then stash it away again safely.

You should read up a bit on good backup strategies. That will explain the concepts of main backups, incremental backups, how to store them safely, and how to keep old backups in case some of your new data turns our to be lost or damaged, and when to start fresh with a new main backup.
 
If you have things that are critical/important to you, best to also back them up in one or more free cloud locations as well, to guard against the unthinkable (floods can destroy all your drives, etc..

Amazon Drive
Google Drive
MS OneDrive
DropBox
P-Cloud
Box
Degoo
Magenta
AsusWeb (free if you have an Asus MB)

32 GB flash drives are about $8, and, I have a 128 MB flash drive I've been using without issue since 2005...; they are also viable places to store things as a third or 4th copy.
 
Apr 8, 2018
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Thank you so much for replying! I do have a back-up one in a cloud and one on an external hard-drive. I have it set to only back-up of all the files from the week and add them to the others so it is a growing back-up of the embroidery files and vectors. I just never thought it would take so much time to do a full back-up as I had never done one all at once. Based on reading your entries I think I need to research software that runs back-up. Right now I am doing it based on creation and modification dates. I am not overly concerned about any software so I have never ran a back-up of software. Most of my software is key activated so if there was ever an issue I would have to provide my account numbers and receipts all that are saved on the cloud. The software is useless with our the key. I hope I have been thinking about this correctly as I have only ever done it this way.

In addition based on the above entries am I to assume I can not remove the OS and leave the other files in tack. So I am going to first research a back-up software then attempt a back-up of the files. Once all files are safe format the drive using the recommended software. Please stop me if I am understanding this incorrectly.
 
It is possible to connect the drive internally/externally with an adapter to another computer, and delete assorted unwanted directories, including normally critical protected/and/or hidden WIndows directories/folders from there....

It'd be easier to take what you need from it, quick format it (can't be done from a system running Windows from that drive), then restore what you wish to store on to that drive...
 
Solution

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
mdd1963 is correct. You might be ab;e to delete selectively the OS and other files you no londer need on the old HDD when it is mounted in another machine. But maybe not - I don;t know for sure. Windows is very self-protective, and often refuses to mess with any files that look like itself. But as we've said, it may be easier to back up completely, clean the old HDD, then restore only what you want to it. I know this will take a ling time, but it should do the work by itself unattended. You can start the job late one evening and let it run overnight.

There is a difference between what I suggested (a Zero Fill) and a Format. I do not recommend doing a Quick Format on an older drive full of data. That process does NOT erase any old data, and it does not test for Bad Sectors, although it is a quick process. A Full Format done by Windows these days will actually check every Sector in the assigned Partition space that is usable for files and mark as Bad Sectors any that appear faulty so they don't get used. Because it works on almost all the drive, it will take a long time. A Zero Fill, on the other hand, writes all zeroes to EVERY Sector of the HDD, no matter where that is. Thus it wipes out any data anywhere. In doing so, it also triggers the disk's self-testing process, and this does a slightly different action when it finds a Sector that is clearly faulty, or even seems to give weak signals. In this process, the unit will keep its own record of "do not ever use" this Sector and then replace it from its own stock of known-good spare Sectors. This process is entirely outside the view of any OS so Windows knows nothing about this. This also takes a long time because it must work on EVERY Sector of the HDD unit. When the process is finished, to Windows the HDD appears to have NO Bad Sectors anywhere, and it contains NO data anywhere either. Thus, when you do the necessary Initialization of the drive (which includes a Format) you do NOT need a Full format; it already has been completely tested, so a Quick Format will do all you need, and that takes only a few minutes.