Old data on SSD

John Vandeart
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You know how it goes: you buy a new computer with better specs and the only thing you want to keep is the hard drive. Correction: The data on that hard drive. The more precious the data (read: the memories), the more important the hard drive. The time has come to do something with it

The robust ACT AC1410 is suitable for 3.5 inch SATA and IDE hard disks

No bread
Admittedly, those hard drives in the closet don’t eat bread. But it doesn’t get any better and – it will really happen someday – at a certain point you can’t get the data off. That is why it is a good time to intervene now. We also have two flavors: (1) SATA for the more recent hard disks and (2) IDE for the seriously older ones. For SATA, you can find all kinds of cables and docking stations on the left and right, but for IDE the flush is already getting thinner. Indeed, that is the harbinger…

SATA or IDE? The supplied cables can connected in only one way		This hard disk is connected correctly

HCC solution
HCC wouldn’t be HCC without presenting you with a nice solution. We looked for a versatile, robust and affordable solution for both SATA and IDE. We found that solution in the form of the ACT AC1410: a sturdy metal housing with its own external power supply in which you can place both a SATA and an IDE hard disk of 3.5 inches. This way, such a hard disk is ready for the (storage) future, because it can be connected to your computer via USB. And if it suits you better, you can leave that metal housing for what it is. You can first use the ‘insides’ of that ACT box as a separate adapter in order to transfer the content of several small old hard drives to one modern and large (in terms of capacity) external mini-SSD.

It all fits exactly and the box can closed become		The USB cable and the electricity connection to confirm and it is ready to use

Inventory
Start with an inventory: what do you have? Probably multiple hard drives with capacities ranging from 120MB to 120GB. It won’t be much more than 1 to 2 TB, but the calculation does determine the size of the external SSD you need. If you do not yet opt ​​for an external SSD, then you will selectively transfer – with your current computer as an intermediate station – from small to large, after which the largest hard drive (with all memories) remains in the end and it is then safely stored in the ACT cabinet. posted.

ACT box
The ACT AC1410 can therefore handle both SATA and IDE. That goes without saying, because they both need different cables. Those cables are included and can go one way into the hard disk and then one way into the ACT box. Then plug in the USB cable, plug in the power supply and you’re done. Is it that simple? Yes, it’s that simple… But everything with care, because it fits pretty precisely. The next step is to connect the ACT box containing the old hard disk to your new computer.

Three things
Then three things can happen:

1. you will see a new external hard drive in the Windows Explorer,
2. you don’t see anything in the Windows Explorer but something in it Disk Management or
3. you see nothing at all.

In the third case, check the cables, but keep in mind that the hard drive could have failed. In the second case, it can Disk management perhaps one drive letter grant but would the healing intervention of something like a part manager provide the desired solace. .

	Windows Disk Management is the first line utility which you can find out how it is with an external hard drive state

Disk management
An external hard drive that does not – yet – show itself in Windows Explorer, could well be without a drive letter. In that case, press WINKEY+X and go to it Disk management. That Disk Management shows all storage devices and all partitions on those storage devices. Normally, C: is the drive letter given out to the partition that Windows resides on. Just as normally, the connected external hard drive is at the bottom of the list of all storage devices. And if you don’t see a drive letter, then right-click on the missing partition. To then choose the context menu option Change drive letter and paths.
After that everything will work itself out…

The EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard may help you get a functioning external hard drive back in one click

Restore partition
If assigning a drive letter is not possible, it could just be that the external hard drive – at the time – was pulled out of the computer too quickly. In that case, the so-called partition table (which keeps the proverbial bookkeeping of the partition in order) is not completely written, resulting in a partition that is no longer accessible to Windows Explorer. You then need a recovery program if EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard which you can find here: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm. This recovery program can recover a ‘collapsed’ partition and – if it’s even worse – recover 2GB of data for free. Anyway, you start the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and you select the found one Lost partition to get up afterwards scan to click. And then you will have to wait for the things to come…

This is the recovery option of the partition manager EaseUS Partition Master Free. An extra in addition to all the other possibilities of this tooling

partition manager
It Disk management of Windows is just ‘minor’ tooling if you compare that with a so-called part manager if EaseUS Partition Master Free (http://nl.easeus.com/partition-manager/partition-master-free.html). A partition manager can do much more than it Disk Management; think of, among other things, being able to enlarge, shrink and move partitions. This aside… A part manager can also help you restore a partition, so that it can be picked up and displayed again by Windows Explorer. With which we inform you of the presence of one more hard drive utility have pointed out.

On the left the old hard disk, on the right the new SSD. We have provided the photo folders with the correct names and copying will start in a moment

To copy
Next is copying. Don’t do that with Windows Explorer, but use something like the aforementioned Double Commander (image 7). And do it right the first time! Organize your data in recognizable folders and be sure to get one year stamp along; you just go back decades in time (image 8). Definitely take some extra time to look around your photo folders, because you’ll see that you’ve started a real time machine. And that is certainly nice: being able to combine the useful and the pleasant!

Double Commander is doing the copy hit. The SSD – as you can see, is Samsung’s – has more than enough space