Rds1983 Posted May 21, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 Any recommendations on how I can recover a load of old photo's from an old desktop that's no longer working? It's just either giving the blue screen of death or completely freezing on startup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted May 21, 2022 Administrator Share Posted May 21, 2022 1 hour ago, Rds1983 said: Any recommendations on how I can recover a load of old photo's from an old desktop that's no longer working? It's just either giving the blue screen of death or completely freezing on startup. You might want to start with some basics - like telling us which operating system and version is on the disk. Have you tried putting the disk in another computer and see if you can read it? Don't do this if it was caused by a virus though. Can't you get them from your backups? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted May 21, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 5 minutes ago, limpid said: You might want to start with some basics - like telling us which operating system and version is on the disk. Have you tried putting the disk in another computer and see if you can read it? Don't do this if it was caused by a virus though. Can't you get them from your backups? All on the hard drive without backups (was on the list to sort at some point) and no discs (assuming you mean CDs and not the drive?). Wouldn't know how to try putting a hard drive in a new PC. It ran on Windows 10. Happy to try and figure out what type of hard drive it is if needed and guidance how to do so can be provided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted May 21, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 (edited) Kind of straightforward. You need an adapter. Assuming it's a sata hard drive (almost certainly is). Try This. Plug one end into the hard drive, the other into your good computer USB port. If your good computer is a Windows machine, the first thing it'll do is index the drive, which will take a while. The drive will be unresponsive until it's done. Navigate to 'users' 'account name' and drag and drop what you want access to. Feel free to ask questions here. None are too stupid. Edited May 21, 2022 by Anthony Typos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted May 21, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 Just an addon to Anthonys post, if it is a 3.5 inch mechanical drive it might draw more power than supplied from the usb port. If that's the case, get a cable assembly that comes with an external power adapter. SSDs and 2.5 inch drives should power fine from USB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted May 21, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 30 minutes ago, Anthony said: Kind of straightforward. You need an adapter. Assuming it's a sata hard drive (almost certainly is). Try This. Plug one end into the hard drive, the other into your good computer USB port. If your good computer is a Windows machine, the first thing it'll do is index the drive, which will take a while. The drive will be unresponsive until it's done. Navigate to 'users' 'account name' and drag and drop what you want access to. Feel free to ask questions here. None are too stupid. I'm assuming Sata is a manufacturer and the drive should be branded with the logo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted May 21, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted May 21, 2022 (edited) 55 minutes ago, Rds1983 said: I'm assuming Sata is a manufacturer and the drive should be branded with the logo? No, its a connection-type. Looks like this. The red cable connects to the narrow data-part on the drive. The wider part in the drive below is for power. The device in Anthonys link has both power and data Edited May 21, 2022 by Tegis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted May 21, 2022 Administrator Share Posted May 21, 2022 4 hours ago, Rds1983 said: All on the hard drive without backups (was on the list to sort at some point) and no discs (assuming you mean CDs and not the drive?). Wouldn't know how to try putting a hard drive in a new PC. Others have advised on getting the disk working. If you aren't sure, ask at your local PC repair shop for the lead you need. They may be able to lend / rent you a powered disk enclosure. I was referring to cloud services. You should have automatic backups to one of the many, many services offering this. Invest in a cloud storage solution, preferably one that allows you to access all you photos from any device, including your phone. Google is the best fit for most people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted May 22, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 22, 2022 10 hours ago, limpid said: Others have advised on getting the disk working. If you aren't sure, ask at your local PC repair shop for the lead you need. They may be able to lend / rent you a powered disk enclosure. I was referring to cloud services. You should have automatic backups to one of the many, many services offering this. Invest in a cloud storage solution, preferably one that allows you to access all you photos from any device, including your phone. Google is the best fit for most people. I've got cloud backup for more recent photo's but not for the 10/15 year old ones on that desktop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted May 22, 2022 Administrator Share Posted May 22, 2022 1 hour ago, Rds1983 said: I've got cloud backup for more recent photo's but not for the 10/15 year old ones on that desktop. Go to photos.google.com and upload all of them once you have them back. You might need to buy additional space, but it'll be far cheaper than dealing with this next time Windows drops you in the crap. Or just drive.google.com if you just want to store them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PussEKatt Posted May 22, 2022 Share Posted May 22, 2022 You could buy a HDD case and place your old HDD in there,then plug case into your working PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted May 22, 2022 Administrator Share Posted May 22, 2022 I'm disappointed to realise that Windows 10 still doesn't encrypt the disk by default. Probably for the best in this case though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted May 23, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 23, 2022 I've ordered one of the connectors @Tegisrecommended and will give it a go once it arrives and I have some free time. Thanks everyone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted June 10, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 10, 2022 (edited) On 21/05/2022 at 18:44, Anthony said: Kind of straightforward. You need an adapter. Assuming it's a sata hard drive (almost certainly is). Try This. Plug one end into the hard drive, the other into your good computer USB port. If your good computer is a Windows machine, the first thing it'll do is index the drive, which will take a while. The drive will be unresponsive until it's done. Navigate to 'users' 'account name' and drag and drop what you want access to. Feel free to ask questions here. None are too stupid. Finally got some spare time to try this but doesn't seem to have worked. I've taken the drive out and connected it to the PC. I've gone to Users and there's 2 there, a public one and one in my name with my current saved items. I feel like I'm missing something, thinking either I've not connected the cable up properly (I did wide bit into the data drive and the small into my USB port) or there's a 2nd drive in my old PC that I'm missing (pic below). Edit. Just seen both those folders haven't been modified since 2020 when we got the PC so I'm guessing they're existing ones and the old drive hasn't connected for some reason. Edited June 10, 2022 by Rds1983 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slovenian Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 is there an ssd drive bellow your cd-rom? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted June 11, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 11, 2022 46 minutes ago, slovenian said: is there an ssd drive bellow your cd-rom? Knew I was missing something. Got that out and all the old pictures are on it. Just need to transfer them off and back it all up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted June 11, 2022 Moderator Share Posted June 11, 2022 1 hour ago, Rds1983 said: Got that out and all the old pictures are on it. Just need to transfer them off and back it all up. I had a computer that died and I took the (still perfectly good) ssd out, and use it as a back up storage device for the new laptop, using a usb to Sata cable. It’s much faster than the ancient hd I used to use (which is now connected to the telly for recording programmes onto). Basically don’t chuck it away! It’s valuable and useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rds1983 Posted June 11, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 11, 2022 Just now, blandy said: I had a computer that died and I took the (still perfectly good) ssd out, and use it as a back up storage device for the new laptop, using a usb to Sata cable. It’s much faster than the ancient hd I used to use (which is now connected to the telly for recording programmes onto). Basically don’t chuck it away! It’s valuable and useful. No idea how to use it but I now have two spare drives just sitting there. Is there any value in selling one? I don't really use the desktop much anymore apart from occasional gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted June 11, 2022 Moderator Share Posted June 11, 2022 You could sell it (after wiping it), but it’s ridiculously simple to use as a back up device. You can either use it as a big folder(s) manually copying stuff you want to back up to it, or use it as an automatic back up device. read something like this for guidance: https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/how-to-use-an-external-hard-drive.html#:~:text=Windows 10 Use External Hard Drive 1 Press,to paste the folders and files. See More. Quote It is a safe Backup Device. To avoid data loss, you can use an external hard drive to back up your files and programs. After system crashes, you can easily connect the external hard drive to another computer so that you can recover important data. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slovenian Posted June 11, 2022 Share Posted June 11, 2022 1 hour ago, Rds1983 said: Knew I was missing something. Got that out and all the old pictures are on it. Just need to transfer them off and back it all up. excellent, happy to hear that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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