[SOLVED] Can I plug existing data harddrive into new system?

Battles Atlas

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Jun 14, 2013
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Hi, I'm building a new system, and in the process will be upgrading from Win7 to Win10. The machine will be new hardware other than the GPU and a couple of hard drives used for data which I'll port over from the old machine (note the OS will be a fresh install on a new drive). However last time I did something similar I had this weird security permissions problem afterwards - all the folders and files on a transferred drive were locked, and I had to find a way of changing permissions for everything. I managed it in the end, but it took a while and was a pain in the ass.

To this day I don't know what caused that, and I'm worried it might reoccur. So can someone advise - should I just be able to take a drive from my current Win7 system and plug it into the new system and use it there? Basically like you would a USB drive. Or do I need to do something different?
 
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Ok, thanks for the information. Is there any alternative to this? Like how are you supposed to transfer large amounts of data to a new install? I cant say I'm a fan of any process that throws up an error when its working as intended...
If this is just the personal data in the Libraries folders, and the old system still works, you can move the data out from those Libraries.

The Doc/Music/Photo Library folders is what holds the original User permissions, and propagates to all its children files and subfolders.
Create other folders outside that /User/ space, and copy the data to those.
The actual files, NOT the whole folder.

If, OTOH, the old system is defunct...you're out of luck.

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
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It probably will recur, but is simple to fix.

When you plug in a drive that was created on another Windows instance, the new Windows 10 instance has no idea of the userids (in numeric form, and that denote file ownership) that existed on the old system. All the files that are on drives that are "direct transplants" will likely throw a warning that you (any you, even the admin) do not have permission to do anything with those files. But if you are the admin account or are logged in to a user account with admin permissions, I believe you will be asked if you wish to take ownership (or some such) of the files on that drive, to which you answer in the affirmative.

After that, there's nothing for you to do but wait until Windows has gone through the drive attaching your userid as having owner permissions on all the files on the drive. That's what I'd do, though there are other options as well.
 
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Battles Atlas

Honorable
Jun 14, 2013
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10,510
Ok, thanks for the information. Is there any alternative to this? Like how are you supposed to transfer large amounts of data to a new install? I cant say I'm a fan of any process that throws up an error when its working as intended...
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Ok, thanks for the information. Is there any alternative to this? Like how are you supposed to transfer large amounts of data to a new install? I cant say I'm a fan of any process that throws up an error when its working as intended...
If this is just the personal data in the Libraries folders, and the old system still works, you can move the data out from those Libraries.

The Doc/Music/Photo Library folders is what holds the original User permissions, and propagates to all its children files and subfolders.
Create other folders outside that /User/ space, and copy the data to those.
The actual files, NOT the whole folder.

If, OTOH, the old system is defunct...you're out of luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Battles Atlas
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