Computer Help: Need to read old drive in HDD enclosure

[Bestbank Tiger]

My old laptop finally died a couple of weeks ago (power supply). I got a new one, plus an enclosure for the hard drive from the dead one. I put the old hard drive in the enclosure and hooked it up to my new computer.

Windows 7 recognizes it as an external hard drive but wants to format it. (The old one is XP). I want to read it and transfer some of the old files. How do I get it to see the old files?

TIA.

 

[Cutlass]

You've tried cancelling the formatting and just going in by way of explorer?

 

[emzie]

I had the exact same thing happen to me. I took the laptop HDD and hooked it up via SATA cable rather than USB.

 

[GoodGame]

I'm not sure why Windows would want to automatically format it unless you have it in some obsolete file format (How old is the laptop?).

Try Exploring the drive directly and see if that helps.

Another option is basically to do like Contre did, if you can (not under warranty) open your case, connect a spare SATA cable or PATA cable as necessary, and thread the cable out of a hole in your case. I have such a cable just for the purpose of reading/deleting old hard-drives without connecting them to a cage. Alternatively try installing the HDD in your computer.

If the above isn't possible, look at the jumper switches on the hard drive and set them to cable select or "slave". There will be a label on the HDD usually to explain what to make the jumper positions. That'd be the only other cause for weirdness in accessing the drive.

Failing all that there may be a free/free trial utility program that can help you. Try searching CNET.com.