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January 29th, 2017 04:00

Can I access my old laptop's hard drive externally?

I have an old laptop that cannot turn on anymore. I was wondering if I take out the hard drive, will i be able to plug it in to my new laptop with an adapter to access my files? Another question I have is, lets say that I had files that were on my desktop in the old laptop, will i still be able to access that too? Thank you!

53 Posts

January 29th, 2017 15:00

You can buy an external enclosure very cheaply and connect up to your desktop/laptop via USB and access your data.

3 Posts

January 30th, 2017 13:00

Okay that is really good to know thank you! But do you know if I'll still be able to access my data that were on my desktop in my old laptop?

53 Posts

January 30th, 2017 17:00

You will be able to access any files that you need to, it works the same as if it was an external hard drive.

53 Posts

January 30th, 2017 17:00

Yes you can, I have an adapter that works with IDE and SATA desktop drives, they are more expensive than the 2.5 inch laptop drive enclosure, about 3 times as much. They need to use external power source which you would plug into you wall outlet, it all comes in the kit. It costs about $30.00 where I live but maybe cheaper where you live.

3 Posts

February 19th, 2017 23:00

Okay thank you for all the help, I finally managed to hook up my hard drive and I access to most files but I have another issue right now, I need to access my files from my old desktop but when I click "users/(myname)" it keeps saying access denied because I don't have ownership. Does anyone know a work around?

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87.5K Posts

February 20th, 2017 17:00

Taking ownership files (this varies by version of Windows).

technet.microsoft.com/.../cc753659(v=ws.11).aspx

1 Message

August 21st, 2019 17:00

I have my old dell hard drive extracted from my computer and plugged into my new computer but i am not seeing files. I see some folders with random folders and files in them. and some .wim files. Is there something special I have to do to see all my old files?
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