So-I have a hard drive that has my data and the operating system that was taken out of my old computer. Since the old computer is disassembled-it's too late for a Windows Data back up. What is now the best way to get only my personal data files off the old hard drive and on to the new computer that has a Windows 10 operating system also? I guess I would start with buying an enclosure-then what would be next?
Data Transfer from Windows 10 Hard Drive to New Computer
- Thread starter CKN
- Start date
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Why bother with an enclosure for a one time event? Just grab the SATA cable from the old system and plug it into the new one, or buy a cable... they're about $1 on ebay.
Why would you disassemble the old computer before getting the data off ? Why would you not have been making backups of any data valuable enough to bother with now? If my current OS drive dies, I lose nothing (except changes since the last backup) but the time to put a new drive in and restore a backup, or user generated files are on a different partition and redundantly backed up (more often) too. Your old data may be in your users folder, but i would advise to not do that this time, store it elsewhere instead since user data tends to change more often than *important* OS changes, so ideally would be backed up more often. You can do it either way, but there are more benefits to keeping OS and user data separate.
You should consider doing this on your new system. For user generated data there are programs out there to automate it where all you have to do is plug a USB HDD or flash drive in and it'll backup anything you pre-set it to do. For example Freefilesync/Realtimesync.
Why would you disassemble the old computer before getting the data off ? Why would you not have been making backups of any data valuable enough to bother with now? If my current OS drive dies, I lose nothing (except changes since the last backup) but the time to put a new drive in and restore a backup, or user generated files are on a different partition and redundantly backed up (more often) too. Your old data may be in your users folder, but i would advise to not do that this time, store it elsewhere instead since user data tends to change more often than *important* OS changes, so ideally would be backed up more often. You can do it either way, but there are more benefits to keeping OS and user data separate.
You should consider doing this on your new system. For user generated data there are programs out there to automate it where all you have to do is plug a USB HDD or flash drive in and it'll backup anything you pre-set it to do. For example Freefilesync/Realtimesync.
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OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I just did that and almost lost my files.
Windows have some sort of permission and file / folder ownership issues and locked me out, then try to convert the ownership of those files, and ruined things.
If you can try to use the computer to turn it on, move files out of those "Users/username/my documents" places and to a separate folder from C:\ and avoid this mess.
That's going to be difficult if the new computer is a laptop
It's not a laptop.
Not exactly sure here. The USB enclosure (due to be delivered on Thursday) has a separate Power cord-and it plugs in to he new computer via USB. So I put my old HD in and click on the "new drive" and it shows up on my new computer to open. Is this where you had issues?
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Thanks for your help!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
