Read data from HDD of old computer using SATA (not a data recovery emergency)

[Dr. Prop]

I have removed 2 500GB HDDs from an old computer of mine and plugged them into my new computer using a SATA connnection. I would like to access the data on them, but they do not show up as drives under "Devices and Drives" in "This PC". However, they do show up as"Unallocated" space in Disk Management. A google search suggests that I either need a sata to usb connector or to download recovery.software to access this data. Is this true, and if so, can you recommend a free piece of software?

[youmanyousef]

4 minutes ago, Erwins Kitten said:

I have removed 2 500GB HDDs from an old computer of mine and plugged them into my new computer using a SATA connnection. I would like to access the data on them, but they do not show up as drives under "Devices and Drives" in "This PC". However, they do show up as"Unallocated" space in Disk Management. A google search suggests that I either need a sata to usb connector or to download recovery.software to access this data. Is this true, and if so, can you recommend a free piece of software?

If it is unallocated, you might be screwed. On the other hand, if you skipped disk check when windows started then thats probably why its not showing up. it kinda looks like this. Did you see this? 

[Dr. Prop]

Just now, youmanyousef said:

If it is unallocated, you might be screwed. On the other hand, if you skipped disk check when windows started then thats probably why its not showing up. it kinda looks like this. Did you see this? 

No, I never saw that screen. I did open my bios to look at something entirely unrelated however. If going into the bios, then exiting the bios and loading windows from there would cause a disk check to be skipped, then I guess I did. Do drives (SSDs, HDDs, etc) not show up like flash drives when plugged in by default?

 

Also, some more history of these drives. The old computer died in 2013 (blue screen of death and subsequent complete failure to boot). At the time, I was lead to believe by hp support that my graphics card died. Based on what I know about computers now, I'm not sure that's all that broke. 

[youmanyousef]

5 minutes ago, Erwins Kitten said:

No, I never saw that screen. I did open my bios to look at something entirely unrelated however. If going into the bios, then exiting the bios and loading windows from there would cause a disk check to be skipped, then I guess I did. Do drives (SSDs, HDDs, etc) not show up like flash drives when plugged in by default?

so heres what I would do to troubleshoot before I use recovery option.

Make a bootable usb of any linux distro. Or just use Gparted bootable cus thats what we need anyway.(go online for a tutorial)

open it and open gparted. if the drive is still empty then go for the recovery.

[Dr. Prop]

39 minutes ago, youmanyousef said:

so heres what I would do to troubleshoot before I use recovery option.

Make a bootable usb of any linux distro. Or just use Gparted bootable cus thats what we need anyway.(go online for a tutorial)

open it and open gparted. if the drive is still empty then go for the recovery.

I think using the Gparted software and messing with Linux is more than I know how to do and want to spend time working on. Can you recommend a free drive recovery application? 

[Dr. Prop]

I have since tried Recuva, but I cannot see the drives. The drives do show up in my BIOS and they show up in Disk Management and Device Manager. Is there a different piece of software that could read them?

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, Erwins Kitten said:

I think using the Gparted software and messing with Linux is more than I know how to do and want to spend time working on. Can you recommend a free drive recovery application? 

Its more to take a look at it or rather what Partitions are there.

Because Linux can detect more filesystems than Windows can, it makes sense to take a look at that.