2nd hard drive data not accessible

[SirGrant]

Hi all,

 

I recently did a clean install of windows 8 (then upgraded to 8.1) on a new hard drive. I put in the original hard drive (with windows 7 format) into the system as a backup and to access photos / videos already on it. All of the folders on the old hard drive have gibberish names and no data inside the folders. However, when I pull up the drive properties, it still shows as mostly full.

 

What do I need to do to access the original content on the drive? No changes have been made to the drive at all.

 

Thanks for your help,

 

Grant

[Volbet]

You could try loading Ubuntu onto a USB stick or DVD, and boot up from that. Then you might be able to backup all your photos and videos to an extrenal HDD, a USB thumb drive or to the HDD that you installed Windows 8 on. 

Although you might be out of luck. Sometimes a Windows install can screw up the file format on the HDD it is't installed on, especially if there is a different copy of Windows installed on it. 

[SirGrant]

Thanks Volbet! Just to clarify, the 2nd drive was not hooked up during the clean install but was attached after the fact. So Win 8 shouldn't/ couldn't have messed up the original file system. Any other thoughts? I'm sort of hoping that there might be an easier solution...