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Question

Old hard drive

May 26, 2011 10:53PM PDT

I have a friend that asked if I could get some files off his old hard drive. I have a Usb to sata/ide cable. Hooked up the old hard drive which is an xp system to my laptop which is windows 7. Drive shows up on my laptop and i can actually copy files to it and move them and use it like a flash drive. I can't see any of their files. When I run properties it shows 35 gig used so the files are there I just can't see them. Is there some piece of software I'm missing or a setting I'm forgetting? Please help.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Try the software and titles noted in the CNET Storage Forum.
May 26, 2011 11:50PM PDT
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Answer
Folder Options
May 28, 2011 6:40AM PDT

I'm not sure exactly what your problem is but the files might be "Hidden Files". Unless you have changed the folder settings yourself then windows is set to hide them by default, to change this search "Folder Options" > View, then the first Sub section should be "Hidden Files and Folders", make sure it is set to "Show" and then take another look on the drive. Not sure that this will fix it but its an option.
Another option if the files need recovering then I have heard that a good piece of freeware to use is "PC i Recovery" which can be found on google. You could give that a try to see if it works.

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Answer
Just to add this . . .
May 29, 2011 11:52PM PDT

Knowing the type of files might tell us where they are located. Documents, pictures, music, etc. are usually stored in the (default) My Documents folders under specific folders for the previous file types.