How do I restore and recover personal files from a Windows 10 hard drive?

[Choji Choji]

How to restore recover personal files from a windows 10 hard drive

Hi, I will be as concise as possible on this thread.
My hp pavilion dv6000 is running windows 10 currently the 1511 version. Pc is passworded and associated with Microsoft account. Somehow it developed fault that resulted to spark on the board resulting to system unable to power on. I have a new system but I need to transfer my files from the old laptop's hard drive so I used the socket that connects internal hard drive to another laptop as external hard drive via USB. it FAILED to install the hardware. It installs as unknown in device manager. I have tried on other sockets and PCs still noticed the same thing. Hard drive is healthy..
I am almost certain this has to do with windows 10 attempts to prevent me from losing my files to theft perhaps my hard drive was stolen, something that is obtainable in earlier versions of windows. However, that's just my guess.

Meanwhile I have NOT tried connecting the hard drive via IDE socket to try booting windows 10 on another laptop BUT I tried booting it as OS on external hard drive & it is not read by the laptop

I really need help on how to access the hard drive and get my files as the spoiled laptop shows no sign of coming up soon.
Thanks

 

[TechFreak1]

Re: How to restore recover personal files from a windows 10 hard drive

Hi, I will be as concise as possible on this thread.
My hp pavilion dv6000 is running windows 10 currently the 1511 version. Pc is passworded and associated with Microsoft account. Somehow it developed fault that resulted to spark on the board resulting to system unable to power on. I have a new system but I need to transfer my files from the old laptop's hard drive so I used the socket that connects internal hard drive to another laptop as external hard drive via USB. it FAILED to install the hardware. It installs as unknown in device manager. I have tried on other sockets and PCs still noticed the same thing. Hard drive is healthy..
I am almost certain this has to do with windows 10 attempts to prevent me from losing my files to theft perhaps my hard drive was stolen, something that is obtainable in earlier versions of windows. However, that's just my guess.

Meanwhile I have NOT tried connecting the hard drive via IDE socket to try booting windows 10 on another laptop BUT I tried booting it as OS on external hard drive & it is not read by the laptop

I really need help on how to access the hard drive and get my files as the spoiled laptop shows no sign of coming up soon.
Thanks

Can you hear the HDD spin when you plug in the enclosure?

If so it may be recoverable if not, you will need a repair centre.

The other way to tell if your hard drive is faulty or not is to open disk management via right clicking the start menu. Plug in the usb hdd enclosure containing your old hdd and refresh via actions. If the disk management window hangs for a very long period of time, the system hangs and only becomes responsive after your unplug the hdd then it's faulty.

The only way to recover in this case it use a Live CD for Linux Distro such as ubuntu this requires no install and can be run off a DVD or a usb stick. I used this method to recover data off an old hdd enclosure that got dropped pretty badly however even then that's a long shot as only some data was recoverable.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Ok you don't need to try to boot with the drive. WIndows 10 doesn't really protect you from theft unless you use encryption. If the drive is operable you can plug it in and read it with any Windows pc. I have don't this many time using an external USB drive case. I even took a HD that was a boot drive and cloned it to an SSD and I moved the HD to a second bay and used it as a data drive.