Bother

It succeeded :-)

(you have a different name and email address shown, but that may be deliberate)

It should be. You can also get a USB case for your old hard drive and then plug it into the new W11 box. It's likely the HDD is still readable even if Windows won't boot from it any more.

(although I would use the USB to copy everything important off it onto the W11 box, in case it does go pop in future)

Theo

Although note that if it is a 3.5" HDD, the USB connector will probably not be able to power the drive by itself, so you may need to power it from one of the PCs (new or old) drive power connectors. Alternatively some desktop USB hard drive docks have their own PSU. e.g:

If needs be you can probably do a "repair" install of windows on the existing drive - that can get it running again without losing all your data and installed applications.

I'm not a Windows user, but just wondered what happens if the boot drive is encrypted (Bitlocker, perhaps?). Is there an opportunity to enter a password when using the disk as a non-bootable disk?

In the case of bitlocker, It will normally give you the first section of the bitlocker ID, and prompt for the recovery key. After you enter the recovery key you should be able to access the drive normally.

Hmm. I think my first move is to get the lid off the box and blow the dust out. Very relieved that the back up hard drive is accessible on W11 although there was a whinge about errors needing correcting. Still looking but I have yet to find saved mails on T Bird or my pinned newsgroup stuff. Early days.

Thanks all

It is possible, but might be a bit complicated...

While it's open you might try reseating plugs and sockets and memory cards. It's surprising how gold-plated contacts can allow dust between them, but it happens. Fans keep things cool but they do deposit a lot of dust in certain places.

I bought one just like that from a local computer shop for just £20.

Tim

I have had one of the Startech ones for quite a few years. It "just works" for drives up to at least 4Tbyte. I will try it with a 20Tbyte drive shortly. Mine came with an adapter to allow IDE drives to be accessed.

Make sure you connect it to a USB3 port if possible as this makes a big difference to the speed.

John

That is solving a slightly different problem - trying to reinstall the OS on the same encrypted drive that contains the OS. IME it is much easier, to provide access and copy it elsewhere, then set about fixing it

Yes, Win10 and Win11 include "Backup and Restore Windows 7" in control panel.

You can copy the entire TB profile from the backup / other drive if you want.

2) Look in c:\users\<your win 11 home folder name>\appdata\roaming\

on you win 11 machine - you will see a folder called thunderbird. Rename that to thunderbird.new so you have a backup of your current setup.

now copy the whole c:\users\<your win 7 user folder>\appdata\roaming\thunderbird

folder into the c:\users\<your win 11 home folder name>\appdata\roaming\

on the new machine.

(Note the appdata folder is hidden by default - so just type the address into the address bar of a windows explorer folder, or go into the View-> options on the file explorer windows and change it to show hidden files and folders)

Pretty sure my dual drive version has worked ok on 6 and 8 TB drives...

Oh yes :-)

One click too many! The back up drive seems to cease recording several years back despite displaying during the backup process. I'll check the dates and see if anything was changed.

Don;t forget the 3.3V spin issue on the big drives.

If the SATA power cable has five wires, the 20TB drive won't spin.

If the SATA power cable has four wires, the 20TB drive will spin.

The difference is, the four wire cable has no 3.3V line on it. The four wire cable is +5V GND GND +12V kind of thing. Finding a short extension cable with four wires, can be enough to get it working.

And my drive "clicked" at first. I did not panic. I checked the motor voltage and it was a little too low. A different power supply and the drive was fine.

If you look at the big drive, the screw holes are in the wrong place. All part of the fun. I still don't have a proper tray for mine, so it's a damn nuisance to use.

Paul

I thought that was only for drives sold in USB cases that have been removed from them (as USB is cheaper than bare SATA)?

Or just cut the orange wire.

Theo

That's the anti-handling wire. Cut that and you'll be blown to kingdom come.

As a consumer, it isn't any fun unless it fights and resists your usage.

Paul