[SOLVED] Attempting to recover files from a (failed) HDD

HentaTenta

Distinguished
Jun 6, 2014
46
1
18,540
Hi
I've got an Acer Aspire E15 E5-523-979H
After latest Win10 update, that did not go well (laptop froze sometimes during the update, would not boot properly after a restart, permanent win10 "loading circles" that turn into a blank screen).
Decided to swap out my 1Tb HDD for a 256Gb SSD as my boot drive since i had to reinstall Win10. Installed the old HDD in the DVD bay as extra storage. Installed Win10 x64 on SSD.

I can see the old HDD in the explorer, most of the folders are visible and accessible, most of the files are accessible as well.
However, I'm having problems finding the "Desktop" and "Documents" folder on the old HDD.

If I go to This PC/Acer(D)/Users/My previous user , I can't open the folder; the green loading bar in the path/address starts to fill up, takes super long to do so, but then the process disappears without opening the folder.
I downloaded different data recovery tools (Recuva, Wise Data Recovery) and tried recovering the data.
The apps don't show the "Documents" folder at all (D:\Users\My previous user\Documents ?)
And for the "Desktop" folder\path, there is only one folder that does not interest me, yet all other files\folders that I do want to recover do not show up.
Am i doing something wrong? Please help.
 
Solution
Ok, never mind, found out how to access it.
For anyone that cares, I guess the problem, besides the screwy Win10 update, was that previously, there was a user password. I imagine it was not allowing me to access the Users folder.
Was able to bypass by installing Total Commander and using the app to copy and paste needed folders.

HentaTenta

Distinguished
Jun 6, 2014
46
1
18,540
Ok, never mind, found out how to access it.
For anyone that cares, I guess the problem, besides the screwy Win10 update, was that previously, there was a user password. I imagine it was not allowing me to access the Users folder.
Was able to bypass by installing Total Commander and using the app to copy and paste needed folders.
 
Solution