Windows 7 copy/transfer of data

Tony Stirling

Well-Known Member
I want to copy/transfer data from a hard drive removed from a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium to my PC running Windows XP. This is because the Windows 7 OS on the laptop is badly corrupted and I want to reinstall the OS, the drivers and utilities and the programs.

When I examine the removed hard drive it lists all the programs and folders, but not the actual data, such as photos and documents. How can I find and extract the data only for copying to my PC?

Thanks:(
 
I am not an XP expert but I suspect that you have a permission problem. And those are iffy. Even if you manage to resolve the problem in XP, you will face the problem in reverse order when you want to get your data back to your new Win7.

The best would be to resolve the problem within Win7. Let me ask you a few questions:

1. How badly is your Win7 damaged. Can you still operate it.

2. Do you have an external disk or a USB stick that is large enough to hold the data you want to backup.

3. How big is your Win7 C partition

4. How much data are you trying to backup - in appr. GBs.

With this info we may be able to develop a plan.
 
Do you not see a Users folder? Under C:\

Should see C:\ > Users > NAME > Documents & Settings > Docs & Photos

Drew
 
Thanks for your reply.

Answers to your questions:

1. I have a Dell software support package, and after lengthy talks on the helpline they have recommended a reinstall of Windows 7 on the Dell laptop.

2. I have an external disk of 1TB.

3. I presume you are referring to the Dell laptop with the faulty Windows 7. I do not know the answer to this, but the Dell laptop was bought new 15 months ago, so the partition should be adequate.

4. The data I want to backup is about 30GB.
 
Thanks for your reply.

There is a Users folder on the hard drive from the Dell laptop (which has the faulty Win 7 OS).

There is no Users folder on drive C of my destop PC (which is on Win XP OS).

I want to copy data from the Dell laptop hard drive (which is in a sata enclosure) to my desktop PC or to an external Hard Drive.
 
Hmm, if there is no 'Users' folder, that is pretty serious. That means the account has been wiped out.

There may be a chance to retrieve the data from the restore points (if there are any). But for that you have to attach the enclosure with the defect Win7 disk to a Win7 or Vista system. Then you use Shadow Explorer, navigate to the disk and restore point. Then it is normal navigation and if you found the file(s). right click on it and 'Export" it to any medium you like.
 
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