Question Is it possible to use a recovered disk as my OS local disk again ?

[Hardminder]

Hi everyone,

Pretty simple question here,

Lately, my OS drive died on me. I brought it to an expert an e was able to recover 100% of its content.
I bought a new drive and reinstalled Windows 11.

The question is: is there a way to use the data from the recovered disk as my working OS drive again? To have all the settings or even better, all the programs working as they used to on my old drive that's been 100% recovered. If it's just the settings, fine. If it's everything, great!

I don't think it's possible based on my research, but any tips on how to save some time and energy reinstalling my <<old>> pc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone

 

[ubuysa]

The drive died, that means it's faulty in some way. Why would you then want to risk another failure in the future by reusing it?

You could, if you're brave, try cloning that drive onto the new one but I would not advise that.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I wouldn't risk it, especially as you've already got Windows up and running again on a brand new HDD.

Bin that obviously faulty HDD and buy another if you need more storage.

 

[SkyNetRising]

The question is: is there a way to use that recovered disk as my working OS drive again?

So your old disk died. Physically dead. You can't read it. Right?
You got data from drive recovered 100%.
You want to use recovered data to create a working OS drive.

I don't see, why it would not be possible.
1. Get a new drive for recovered OS,
2. Create all the necessary partitions - bootloader, OS partition,
3. Clone recovered OS partition data to the new drive
(note - file access permissions need to be preserved, you can't just copy/paste),
4. Fix bootloader.

And you should be able to boot into old recovered OS.

 

[Hardminder]

The drive died, that means it's faulty in some way. Why would you then want to risk another failure in the future by reusing it?

You could, if you're brave, try cloning that drive onto the new one but I would not advise that.

Hi, thank you for the reply. I am talking about the data from the recovered disk, not the physical disk itself, which is out of use. Thanks

 

[Hardminder]

I wouldn't risk it, especially as you've already got Windows up and running again on a brand new HDD.

Bin that obviously faulty HDD and buy another if you need more storage.

Hi, thank you for the reply. I am talking about the data from the recovered disk, not the physical disk itself, which is out of use. Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

This all depends on exactly what was "recovered", and how.

You state "100%", but was it really ALL of it?

 

[Hardminder]

This all depends on exactly what was "recovered", and how.

You state "100%", but was it really ALL of it?

Yes, its is supposed to be

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, its is supposed to be

And where does this currently reside?

 

[Hardminder]

So your old disk died. Physically dead. You can't read it. Right?
You got data from drive recovered 100%.
You want to use recovered data to create a working OS drive.

I don't see, why it would not be possible.
1. Get a new drive for recovered OS,
2. Create all the necessary partitions - bootloader, OS partition,
3. Clone recovered OS partition data to the new drive
(note - file access permissions need to be preserved, you can't just copy/paste),
4. Fix bootloader.

And you should be able to boot into old recovered OS.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, this is exactly what I meant, I realized it might have been unclear and I edited it. Would you happen to be able to provide more details on the 4 steps you described? I am finding procedures to do it from a working PC to another but not from a drive containing old PC data to a working computer and I am having a hard time figuring the order in which to proceed, the exact procedure, softwares etc. . Thanks a lot for your time

 

[Hardminder]

And where does this currently reside?

on an external hard drive

 

[SkyNetRising]

on an external hard drive

And in what form do you have your recovered data?
Is it a drive/partition image?
Or just bunch of files/folders copied onto a drive?

If it is in copied files/folders form, then file access permissions are probably lost.

 

[Hardminder]

And in what form do you have your recovered data?
Is it a drive/partition image?
Or just bunch of files/folders copied onto a drive?

If it is in copied files/folders form, then file access permissions are probably lost.

It is just a bunch of files copied onto a drive...

 

[USAFRet]

It is just a bunch of files copied onto a drive...

That does not sound good.

How many files?

 

[Hardminder]

That does not sound good.

How many files?

a whole lot, 700-800 Gb

 

[USAFRet]

a whole lot, 700-800 Gb

I meant a count of the number of files.

But in any case, "a bunch of files copied onto a drive" does not sound like a thing you can reconstitute an OS out of.