Recovering files from old HDD

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revival96

Jun 3, 2018
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Hey,

So, I'm having a new PC delivered today as my previous 6 year old PC's PSU died - figured it was a good excuse to get a complete upgrade. Anyway, I took the HDD out of my old PC thinking I could boot it up on the new PC to recover my files, however, I figured it might not boot up properly what with it being a completely different mobo.

What would be my best option? Reinstalling Windows on the old HDD without formatting (both old and new run Win10) or holding off and purchasing a SATA>USB adapter?

Thanks
 
Solution
A
Alternately mount it in your new PC as a second disk until you have all the data off it.
You don't have to buy an external enclosure, unless you absolutely don't want to open the new box.

The new PSU should have enough connectors and you can use the sata cable from old machine, you can even leave the old disk out of the case temporarily while you salvage your data.
Then remove and bin. You can't rely on a 6 year old disk.
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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There is no need to attempt to boot from it just to access it's data, and it won't boot successfully anyway on different hardware.

Purchase either a SATA-to-USB adapter kit or an external HDD enclosure.
Enclosure is the tidier & preferred option if you intend to use the drive for additional storage on a daily basis.

 
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asoroka

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Apr 19, 2009
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Alternately mount it in your new PC as a second disk until you have all the data off it.
You don't have to buy an external enclosure, unless you absolutely don't want to open the new box.

The new PSU should have enough connectors and you can use the sata cable from old machine, you can even leave the old disk out of the case temporarily while you salvage your data.
Then remove and bin. You can't rely on a 6 year old disk.
 
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Solution
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revival96

Jun 3, 2018
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Thanks for your reply. I do intent to mount it and use it as a second disk, albeit temporarily. However, I won't be able to access my data right? To use it as a second HDD I'd have to format it first? I'd want to retrieve my data before doing this.
 
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asoroka

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you do not have to format it until after you have recovered what you can.

You boot your new PC off its primary (SSD) and this old disk can then be mounted as drive E: (or something). As you can still boot off it, it is still a valid windows formatted disk and diskmanager should be able to mount it.

 
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