Windows 10: Temporarily moving Hard drive to another computer for data extraction

Windows 10 Pro Version 1903

Hello,
I could use a bit of advice.

I recently had my primary computer (let's call it, System 1) fail and so I'm building a new one. But in the meantime, I'm using a backup Windows 10 computer (System 2) (totally different hardware)

However, the hard drive (WD1TB) of the Primary computer (System 1) contains all my vital data. I want to temporarily move the hard drive (WD1TB) to the Backup computer (as a secondary drive) so that I can copy data off of it.

Eventually, I want to install the Primary drive (WD1TB) into my New Replacement Primary computer as the Boot Drive, just as it was in my now failed Primary Computer (System 1), without having to do anything to it, other than plug it into the New Replacement Primary computer and start it. (Hopefully that will work)

My only concern is whether or not placing the HD (WD1TB) from (System 1) into the backup computer will alter the MBR or File Allocation Table in any way? Possibly rendering it unbootable when I place it into my New Replacement Computer.

Thanks and I hope the explanation was clear and I didn't over do it with the labels.

:)

 

Hard Drive Data Recovery

got a laptop pata hard drive that makes a slight constant clicking noise. hard drive is more than likely dead/dying right... i can see that partitions of the hard drive in disk management and i can see the partitions in my computer but i can't get to any of the data.

any suggestions?

 

exterior hard drive usable?

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I suggest you to follow the below steps and check if it helps.

• Plug USB hard drive into old computer.
• Open File Explorer (Win+E) and open the USB drive.
• Open another File Explorer window and open your documents folder.
• Drag files to the USB drive.
• Move drive to new computer.
• Drag files to their new homes in the matching documents/pictures/videos/whatever folders you use to organize.

Please let us know if you have any further issues. in uploading/ transferring data.

Thanks.

 

Lost data from hard drive, what to do now?

Well, I'm sorry to hear that it's a WD My Passport that failed on you, @tomhenry ! *Frown
I'd recommend you to try using a different USB cable with it and see if that will help your system to detect it without it disconnecting.
I'd also suggest you to go to Disk Management and see how the drive is listed there. It won't hurt to check up on the health and SMART status of the HDD by running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Here's a link to the available software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=11ZOpD

Give these troubleshooting steps a try and keep us posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD