Seagate hard drive trouble

[Silver_5]

Okay, so I had most of the files from my old now dead laptop moved to my seagate external hard drive.

When I plugged the hard drive into my new laptop, the folders to some files where visible, but the files are not there.

Is it possible that the folders got downloaded, but not the files? And if its not that, how do I fix this?

A few other things; Im using windows 10. I'm not very tech savvy and I am kind of slow. so I may ask more than once about a thing...

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Silver_5,

The first thing you may want to do is to just attach the drive to another computer, that is not on Win 10. In case the issue persists and the folders are empty, then most probably your data is not there. Yet, you can even try to boot up(don't install it) Ubuntu from a CD or a flash drive and see whether the data would be visible: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode
I believe it will not hurt to scan the drive with some data recovery tool as well.

If the data is not visible, then you may want to attach your internal drive(from the dead laptop) to a working system and see if it would be visible.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

 

[Silver_5]

Hi there Silver_5,

The first thing you may want to do is to just attach the drive to another computer, that is not on Win 10. In case the issue persists and the folders are empty, then most probably your data is not there. Yet, you can even try to boot up(don't install it) Ubuntu from a CD or a flash drive and see whether the data would be visible: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode
I believe it will not hurt to scan the drive with some data recovery tool as well.

If the data is not visible, then you may want to attach your internal drive(from the dead laptop) to a working system and see if it would be visible.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

Uh...Okay....a few things.
1. There is no computer in my home that doesn't run windows 10.
2. I got this done via a professional and he told me the hard drive was failing when he was doing the transfer.
3. How can a dead computer come back on?
4. What? I'm confused by nearly everything you said.
5. How can the folders be transferred but not the files? How is that even possible?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Sorry that my answer was unclear.

1. If you find a computer with a different OS, you will see if all of this is OS related or not.
2. It is highly possible.
3. It really depends on what is dead. If for example, the MOBO is not working, the computer is dead. Yet, your HDD could be intact. So, the data would be inside. What was wrong with your old laptop?
4. If this is about the Ubuntu thing, then I would say that this is an approach that would show you whether the data is recognized by a different OS.
5. The transfer process could have been interrupted or the external drive could be in a really poor condition.

One thing you can do, is to download a data recovery tool and scan the external drive. You can see if there is at least, some of the data over there. There are many threads on data recovery in the community.
After that, you can test the external drive with some of these: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
The results would show you whether the drive is failing or not.

If you don't really feel confident with doing these things, then I believe that it would be better to contact the person that told you the drive was failing and see if he would be able to retrieve the data.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[jacobwilliam1985]

A new drive is often an upgrade to an existing system. It could be additional storage or a replacement for an existing drive. In either case, the physical procedures are the same as described above. Since the operating system does not require a fresh installation, preparing your drive for use is easier. For additional storage in Windows, you can use the Disk Management utility. If you need to transfer your data (sometimes called data migration or clone) you can use the Seagate utility DiscWizard.

 

[Silver_5]

Sorry that my answer was unclear.

1. If you find a computer with a different OS, you will see if all of this is OS related or not.
2. It is highly possible.
3. It really depends on what is dead. If for example, the MOBO is not working, the computer is dead. Yet, your HDD could be intact. So, the data would be inside. What was wrong with your old laptop?
4. If this is about the Ubuntu thing, then I would say that this is an approach that would show you whether the data is recognized by a different OS.
5. The transfer process could have been interrupted or the external drive could be in a really poor condition.

One thing you can do, is to download a data recovery tool and scan the external drive. You can see if there is at least, some of the data over there. There are many threads on data recovery in the community.
After that, you can test the external drive with some of these: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
The results would show you whether the drive is failing or not.

If you don't really feel confident with doing these things, then I believe that it would be better to contact the person that told you the drive was failing and see if he would be able to retrieve the data.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

...
What?
I tried the data recovery thing, two in fact, but nothing came up.

 

[Silver_5]

A new drive is often an upgrade to an existing system. It could be additional storage or a replacement for an existing drive. In either case, the physical procedures are the same as described above. Since the operating system does not require a fresh installation, preparing your drive for use is easier. For additional storage in Windows, you can use the Disk Management utility. If you need to transfer your data (sometimes called data migration or clone) you can use the Seagate utility DiscWizard.

...
Uh...What?

 

[Silver_5]

A new drive is often an upgrade to an existing system. It could be additional storage or a replacement for an existing drive. In either case, the physical procedures are the same as described above. Since the operating system does not require a fresh installation, preparing your drive for use is easier. For additional storage in Windows, you can use the Disk Management utility. If you need to transfer your data (sometimes called data migration or clone) you can use the Seagate utility DiscWizard.

I'm sorry, but I dont understand any of this...

 

[Silver_5]

Sorry that my answer was unclear.

1. If you find a computer with a different OS, you will see if all of this is OS related or not.
2. It is highly possible.
3. It really depends on what is dead. If for example, the MOBO is not working, the computer is dead. Yet, your HDD could be intact. So, the data would be inside. What was wrong with your old laptop?
4. If this is about the Ubuntu thing, then I would say that this is an approach that would show you whether the data is recognized by a different OS.
5. The transfer process could have been interrupted or the external drive could be in a really poor condition.

One thing you can do, is to download a data recovery tool and scan the external drive. You can see if there is at least, some of the data over there. There are many threads on data recovery in the community.
After that, you can test the external drive with some of these: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
The results would show you whether the drive is failing or not.

If you don't really feel confident with doing these things, then I believe that it would be better to contact the person that told you the drive was failing and see if he would be able to retrieve the data.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

I dont understand most of this. Isn't there something else I can do?

 

[D_Know_WD]

I believe that you should better contact a repair shop or a data recovery company(in case the data stored on the drive is extremely important).

D_Know_WD

 

[Silver_5]

I believe that you should better contact a repair shop or a data recovery company(in case the data stored on the drive is extremely important).

D_Know_WD

A lot of it is several years old and would be very hard if not impossible for me to get back.

So, yes. Very important.

Also, would I have them look at the external hard drive on the one on my computer?