Windows 10: View files on broke PC with new built PC

Hello, my mom had a Dell that was from 07 and it died a week ago so i took the chore of building one (PARTS) so she can try and recover her files. On the old pc I think i narrowed it down to the motherboard so im hopeing the HD still works. I need the information off the HD like my quicken backup in (my documents) and some Ms access databases and excel files along with picture and some files.

I guess my question is can I plug this drive in a SATA on my board and will the structure be there like windows or will it not even open? Or do i need some kind of software to pull the data once i plug this thing in.

thanks

:)

 

Installing Windows 10 on a new PC.

Hi,

My desktop PC broke, and I'm planning on buying a new costume built PC.

Can I install Windows 10 using the product key from my old PC? The old desktop was a costume made one too.

Appreciate your assistance.

Best,

 

Reactivate Windows 10 OEM Key

My motherboard and cpu broke and I built a new system. Nothing happened to my harddrive so I ported that to the new system, and everything works fine but it says the key is already in use (Probably because it's a new motherboard). My Windows License is
not bound to my microsoft account and since my old pc broke I can't deactivate the key. How can I reactivate it on my new system?

 

Hi oxicottin and welcome to TenForums.

Once you have the new computer up and running, you can plug the old HDD in a few different ways:
1. a SATA to USB adapter cable or bay dock
2. a SATA+power cable inside the case
3. buy an external HDD case and put the old HDD in it, connecting via USB.

All these ways will enable you to "see" the files stored on the old HDD, and transfer them to the new computer, as long as the old HDD is still functioning. They will appear in file explorer, same as always.

p.s. If you go the external HDD case route, then you can always use that as an extra HDD for backups, once you've grabbed your files off it.

One more thing: If it is an IDE type connection, then you would need something like this.

So, you need to determine if the HDD is IDE (ribbon cable) or SATA.

 

So if i go with the cheapest...

2. a SATA+power cable inside the case

Then all i need is a spare SATA and there are plenty power attachments left in my case. Then once i get what i need i can just leave in case and wipe drive since it is a 250gb drive. Thank You

 

Yes, I'm just a not sure if your computer will think it sees another operating system and try to boot from it. Normally the connections on the MB for the SATA cables and sometimes the settings in your BIOS might have something to do with Master/Slave configuration. I am not that well-versed in these things. But go ahead and try it, and if you have problems booting, at least you'll know where to start looking for the correct configuration.

But please make sure that the old HDD from 2007 is actually a SATA drive. I think that is just old enough to possibly still be IDE.

 

By the way, the title of this thread is kind of an unfortunate choice. A "broke" pc means the pc has got no money *Wink But I think what you meant is: The pc is "broken". You see, one little letter can make a huge difference. I don't want to be a know-it-all. But i thought it would be useful for you to know the difference *Smile

 

@simrick its a SATA not the old style IDE and it worked fine and thank you, I was going to do it this way to begin but like u said in your second comment I wasn't sure about the old OS being there so I needed a second opinion. Thank you for the reassurance!

@altae, I have no reply for your comments other than why give a class between "broke" and "broken" when it had nothing to do with the subject matter......

 

Great news! Glad the old HDD is still functioning. You should use it now for file backups. *Wink You can install the free version of Speccy to check the S.M.A.R.T attributes to make sure it is still a healthy drive.

Please go ahead and mark the thread as "solved" in the top left-hand corner.

Yeah...sorry about that.

 

@simrick , Ok will do and thank you again!

 

Thank you and you are quite welcome!