Using old C: drive

LambdaCat · September 7, 2018

I've just complete my new build with a fresh install of win10 on a boot ssd,

However, a lot of my basic file data (pics, documents etc) is still on my old HDD.

This hdd still has an older win10 on it and was a c: drive,

What would happen if I plugged it into my machine and booted off of the newer ssd and tried to access it to recover the files?

Are there any risks involved etc?

PatXioPC · September 7, 2018

Surely you will be able to boot off of your new boot drive and extract usable data from the old drive. Basically, you will be able to clone every single of your personal files, programs (unless it used a different local directory to cache runtime data) except the .sys windows files.

Master Disaster · September 7, 2018

41 minutes ago, LambdaCat said:

I've just complete my new build with a fresh install of win10 on a boot ssd,

However, a lot of my basic file data (pics, documents etc) is still on my old HDD.

This hdd still has an older win10 on it and was a c: drive,

What would happen if I plugged it into my machine and booted off of the newer ssd and tried to access it to recover the files?

Are there any risks involved etc?

That would be totally fine.

Obviously you need to set boot priorities to boot from the SSD but once that's done the second drive will show as drive D instead of C.

You might have issues accessing your old Documents due to Windows security settings and file ownership settings but in my experience Windows 8 & 10 are quite good at circumventing these problems. If there is a problem at all Windows will normally prompt you to allow it to auto adjust settings. Just click OK and let it do its thing. It depends if your old user account was password protected or not.