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What happens If I put the bootable HDD in an external housing and plug into another PC??
December 20, 2017, 01:19 PM
Black92LXWhat happens If I put the bootable HDD in an external housing and plug into another PC??
Can I access the files on the drive??
Old PC power supply took a crap and is not worth fixing. I thought I had everything off it but appears I don’t.
I have an external housing I can slap it in.
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The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
December 20, 2017, 01:24 PM
1967GoatI've have mixed results, but I think it may have to do with my enclosure. I have done it on 1 HD and it worked fine. On the other, I couldn't get it to detect it. I didn't spend much time, but I think you can go into Device manager and try to detect it that way.
December 20, 2017, 01:28 PM
smschulzquote:
Can I access the files on the drive??
Yes.
I assume you are not trying to boot from that drive and just wanting to access the file.
Then the answer is yes.
If you want to actually boot from it (not sure why you would) then the results could vary.
December 20, 2017, 01:29 PM
mk689You should be able to access the files, no problem. I do that all of the time.
The fact that it is bootable doesn't matter, unless your computer is set to look to USB as the first boot source (which is unlikely unless you deliberately set it that way)
December 20, 2017, 01:33 PM
cyanide357Should work no problem so long as the hdd isn't encrypted.
The machine you plugged the hdd enclosure into will need to be able to read the file system formatting (FAT32 / NTFS, etc) though. Not an issue if say the old pc was windows and the new pc is also windows (though I suspect a Mac should have no issue reading NTFS - at least in a Read-Only mode. FAT32 is pretty much universally understood between window / mac / linux systems though.
Just make sure to pay attention when you plug in to the new system that it doesn't want you to reformat (wipe) the drive before letting you view the contents.
December 20, 2017, 01:41 PM
GWbikerquote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:
Can I access the files on the drive??
Old PC power supply took a crap and is not worth fixing. I thought I had everything off it but appears I don’t.
I have an external housing I can slap it in.
Should work.
I had a Gateway desktop motherboard that took a dump several years ago. Pulled the 500G HD and installed into an external powered housing. Used as storage HD and does connect with my Mac computers.
Gave away the Gateway desktop. Two months out of warranty. Gateway people told me: "Tough shit, out of warranty - not covered".
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"Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".
December 20, 2017, 03:59 PM
Black92LXNo need to boot. Just need to pull some old crap files from the HDD that was in an old crap Vista machine and put them on an old crap vista laptop.
————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
December 20, 2017, 04:24 PM
sigmonkey This is typically the result...
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! December 20, 2017, 05:48 PM
V-Tailquote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
This is typically the result...
Which one is the "any key?"
הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים December 20, 2017, 05:50 PM
sigmonkeyI think it's the "wormy key" on your keyboard.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! December 20, 2017, 09:07 PM
SpinZonequote:
Originally posted by Black92LX:
No need to boot. Just need to pull some old crap files from the HDD that was in an old crap Vista machine and put them on an old crap vista laptop.
It has worked for me with 2 different hard drives. I formatted one of them and still use it in the enclosure as an external HD.
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December 20, 2017, 09:20 PM
Excam_ManDone it many times with good results. Until the day the drive WAS the problem.

December 21, 2017, 06:40 AM
Sig2340DON'T DO IT!!!
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Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
December 30, 2017, 03:39 PM
AUTiger89Why not just replace the power supply? It's not very hard, and they are cheap.
Phone's ringing, Dude.