Retrieving data from a HDD on a new machine

ThomBassmonkey · 27 Aug 2011 at 14:52

My old computer recently blew up and I'm having a new one delivered next week. I'll be wanting to retrieve some stuff from the old HDD though, what's the easiest and cheapest way to do this? It was the line HDD in my old machine, so it has windows installed on it.

Is it simply a case of putting it in and trusting that the machine will check the new HDD first (which will also have win7 on it) and use that to boot or will I need to do something else? Then it should load up as a 2nd drive in my computer?

Thanks

Surveyor · 27 Aug 2011 at 15:08

Just make sure that your new HDD is set as the first boot device in the BIOS after you've installed Windows and then you should be able to access the old HDD assuming the "blowing up" didn't do any damage.

It's probably safest to do the installation to the new HDD first and then when that's finished install the old HDD.

ThomBassmonkey · 27 Aug 2011 at 15:17

Well blowing up was a but if an exaggeration, the PSU and/or mobo died, it went away for repair and they apparently got it working, then it got dropped so stopped working. Theoretically the HDD is still totally fine (and I might end up using it as a backup HDD anyway).

The new PC is a prebuilt, so everything should be installed on it anyway. I'll load in and see if I recognise the desktop then, if it boots my old HDD, I'll go in and take a look at the bios.

Thanks mate.

Surveyor · 27 Aug 2011 at 15:28

If it's pre-built with Windows installed then they should already have set the new HDD as the first boot device.

It won't hurt to check though.

ThomBassmonkey · 27 Aug 2011 at 15:31

That's what I thought, just wanted to make sure.

Thanks very much.

CaptainCrash · 27 Aug 2011 at 15:58

ThomBassmonkey said:
Well blowing up was a but if an exaggeration, the PSU and/or mobo died, it went away for repair and they apparently got it working, then it got dropped so stopped working. Theoretically the HDD is still totally fine (and I might end up using it as a backup HDD anyway).

If the computer got dropped with enough of an impact to stop it working, I'd be very wary about trusting the HDD with anything of any value.

If I were you I'd keep a very close eye on the SMART data, look out for any odd noises or undue delays in reading/writing/opening folders, and just bin it if it starts acting suspiciously.