Trying to recover files from HDD

Internet11x

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Sep. 2019
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Hello everyone!

I've been trying to recover some files from my older pc and I've stumbled across a lot of problems
(It's a very old PC (OS: Windows 7)):

The first time that I booted the PC it led me to the user interface where you could select as which user you would like to start. I selected the only user on that PC and it was loading (Welcome...). I waited but it just froze.

I unplugged my PC and plugged it back in to try another time. But this time instead of booting and sending me to the user interface, it sent me to a black screen with a blinking cursor/underscore at the top left. I thought that a cable must have disconnected from the motherboard or something, so I checked and all the cables we're connected well. I assumed it couldn't boot so I thought it was the HDDs fault. But now that I think about it I'm not quite sure because it booted to the user interface the first time.

I installed Windows 10 (the boot files) on a 14GB Stick and booted my PC through the stick. It did work so I thought it must have actually been the HDD. I didn't finish the setup and I opened Command Prompt just out of curiosity to check if my HDD had files on it, or was completely empty by using notepad (I pressed FILE, OPEN and checked through the explorer). I was so confused when I saw the HDD wasn't even being detected in the file explorer, yet BIOS/The Boot Menu was saying that the SMART Status of the HDD was "ok" and there is a Hard Drive plugged in SATAII 1... or 2... or 3 or 4 because I tried all of them and made sure that they were all enabled in BIOS.

So I closed notepad and file explorer to check diskpart and offcourse only the USB was being detected. I tried proceeding the Windows 10 download procedure but sadly couldn't because Windows 10 couldn't be installed on the Partition I made on my VDISK on my USB.

One thing I also noticed was the fact that my HDD was getting hot so something was actually happening in there. I also tried something with System-Restore and Startup fix in Windows 10 Troubleshooting, yet neither of them worked. I tried connecting the HDD with another SATA cable but without success. Do you know how the cable that comes of the PSU has multiple "plugs" to plug into more HDDs? I tried all of these "plugs" and neither of them worked either.

Maybe I've been focusing on the wrong component and it's not the HDD, or maybe it was a virus that infected my drive. I hope you guys can help me out.

Thank you!
 
Hello, and welcome in the Forum, you know this is a german Forum ?
First - my english is not so good ^^
Is that true - the files from Win7-HDD is needed to be backuped ?
Can you plugin the Win7-HDD on a Win10-PC - e.g. with USB or SATA ?
Or you can use a linux-live-system, to backup your files.
 
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Sorry I did not reply to your answer in time. My browser seems to translate into english so I will try on an english forum. I did get further with my restauration process and I did exactly what you told me, but sadly my windows file explorer only detected a drive being plugged in. It couldn't read the data, neither could it see the occupied/empty space on the drive so since the manufacturer of my HDD is Seagate, I installed one of their software.

The software showed me that the drive capacity was 250/231 GB, that meant all of the files are there. Now Im just trying to get a recovery software...

If you have such a software that you could recommend me could you please name me one. Im sorry for not responding and thank you for your help!
 
I've managed to recover my data using a 3rd Party HDD Recovery Program called "TestDisk". I'm so glad to have my data back but thanks for your help anyway!
 
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