Windows 10: Reading files from old Windows 10 SSD

My old Win10 PC died recently. I have an entire new Win10 PC now. I've removed the old SSD and hooked it up to a USB adapter, making it appear on the new PC as a drive.

My goal is simply to copy the entire contents of the old Windows SSD onto my new PC, just so I can access files/settings/etc. However, NTFS ownership and permissions are getting in the way. I know how to overcome this by taking ownership and adding permission, but I am afraid of messing up the file system for later use. (I'd like to look into getting the old PC repaired, and continuing to use it.)

To be clear, I'm not intending to restore the old copy of Windows over my current; I just want to access the old applications, files, etc.--everything, and long-term.

Is there a way to copy everything without messing up NTFS ownership/permissions? I guess using an imaging utility to create and then restore an image would work--that way I'd have a copy to work on. Is there a more direct method?

I saw the article on backing up and restoring NTFS permissions, but that doesn't cover NTFS ownership attributes.

:)

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

file explorer and reading list on windows 10

Hi Colinus,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.



I appreciate your interest on windows 10.



I understand the inconvenience you faced. We certainly help you with this issue. I want to inform you it is temporary issue it will short out immediately there is no need to go back in previous operating system.
I need more information about this issue so that I can assist you better.

1. Are you referring to reading list app?

If you are using reading list app so I would suggest you to run windows app troubleshooter to fix issue.

Follow the below steps.

• Go to control panel and select troubleshooting then in top left corner of your screen select view all.
• 
  Click on windows store app and click on it and run it.
  

I want to inform you. You can sort, group, and arrange items in a folder or library view by an added column (detail) in ascending or descending order in windows 10 file explorer.

for more information follow the link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/files-folders-windows-explorer


Note: It is also applicable for windows 10 as well.

Try these steps and let us know the status of the issue so that we can assist you better.

Thanks.

 

DOWNLOAD WINDOWS 10 NOW - Upgrade and ISO direct from microsoft

No its built into Windows, just open disk cleanup and select 'Clean up system Files' button on the bottom left- now you'll see previous installs of Windows listed under list of cleanable items. My old install is a whopping 25GB of my 256GB SSD.