[SOLVED] How can I use a HDD that had an OS installed as secondary without deleting its files?

[Irustua]

My HDD belonged to an old computer that was turned off in the middle of an update. After that my pc wouldn't boot normally but it was old and I was thinking of buying a new one anyway.

I ended up building one and installing the new OS in an SSD but I still want to recover and use my old HDD but each time I plug it in, my PC won't boot and will send me to BIOS. There's also a warning at the BIOS prescreen. The PC won't boot until I unplug the corrupted HDD.

 

[Colif]

Its difficult to recover info off a device when the PC itself won't start with device attached.

Is the old hdd still listed in the bios boot order? as if its just data, it shouldn't be. Bios shouldn't be searching for it at boot.
It is true that old corrupted drives can just stop PC from booting though. The data might be beyond your grasp.

 

[TerryLaze]

My HDD belonged to an old computer that was turned off in the middle of an update. After that my pc wouldn't boot normally but it was old and I was thinking of buying a new one anyway.

I ended up building one and installing the new OS in an SSD but I still want to recover and use my old HDD but each time I plug it in, my PC won't boot and will send me to BIOS. There's also a warning at the BIOS prescreen. The PC won't boot until I unplug the corrupted HDD.

Somewhere your bios has a smart setting that checks your disks and doesn't start if there is a problem,you can disable that and your system will boot but if the disk is really damaged it can slow down your system very much,it might not even be able to boot into windows.

https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-problems/smart-status.html

 

[Irustua]

Its difficult to recover info off a device when the PC itself won't start with device attached.

Is the old hdd still listed in the bios boot order? as if its just data, it shouldn't be. Bios shouldn't be searching for it at boot.
It is true that old corrupted drives can just stop PC from booting though. The data might be beyond your grasp.

Hi thank your for responding, yes it is listed in the bios boot order. It's second in priority. First is my SSD.

 

[Irustua]

Somewhere your bios has a smart setting that checks your disks and doesn't start if there is a problem,you can disable that and your system will boot but if the disk is really damaged it can slow down your system very much,it might not even be able to boot into windows.

https://recoverit.wondershare.com/computer-problems/smart-status.html

How risky do you think that may be? I just want to recover my old files and then wipe it all out! Also, do you think after formatting (or wiping it) I will be able to use it safely? Although those sound like big maybes, I'm sorry!

 

[Colif]

1. Take the hdd out of the boot order for starters.
2. Turning off SMART also might help - if you leave this on the PC runs a scan of the drive at startup to check its health and will get stuck. Turning it off might let PC get past this step.

Then once you can boot, you can actually access files.

 

[TerryLaze]

How risky do you think that may be?

For the rest of your system there is no risk.

Also, do you think after formatting (or wiping it) I will be able to use it safely?

For the problematic disk there is always the risk of it being almost dead and actually dying at any moment,either with smart enabled or not,if you really value the data you have to take the disk out and not do anything with it and send it off for data recovery.
If you can copy data from it and it survives a format it should be ok to use.

 

[geofelt]

Buy a powered usb to sata adapter cable.
That should let you see what is on the HDD and possibly recover data.

 

[beers]

A dock or external enclosure wouldn't be a bad play.

Or you could just enable hot plugging if it isn't already on those interfaces and connect it once already booted in, assuming it totally barfs even when you take it out of the BIOS boot order.