can Win 7 64 drives be read by Windows 10?

JayNYC · 13 Nov 2016

hi. I have a Win 7 64 desktop system with

primary drive 2.5" Corsair M4 250GB SSD (OS, some programs, some data files)
secondary drive 3.5" Western Digital 3TB HD (some programs, some data files)

I do not use Bitlocker or any other explicit drive encryption.

question:

if my motherboard were to burn out tomorrow, would I be able to move either/both drives into a new desktop PC (presume Win 10 64 pro) and read any/all files from these drives?

thanks

Lady Fitzgerald · 13 Nov 2016

You should be able to access your data files on both drives but Win 7 and programs would either not work well or would not work at all (most likely not at all).

Would it be possible for you to move all your data files from the Corsair to the WD and reinstall the programs on the WD onto the Corsair? If so, if your mother board were to become toast, you should be able to just slap the 3TB drive into the new Win 10 machine and use it as is. You would have to reinstall your programs onto the new machine (most programs can't be just copied over to another drive or machine). If the new machine has the OS on a hard drive, it might be possible for you to first clone the OS of the new machine to the SSD, then reinstall your programs directly to the SSD (assuming the programs are compatible with Win 10).

ThrashZone · 13 Nov 2016

Hi,
10 reads drives just like any other operating system would so yes as long as the drive isn't encrypted and still functional 10/.... can read it
You might need to take ownership of your personal files or the entire drive but often one does not have to do that but is still pretty easy to do.
Take Ownership Shortcut

JayNYC · 13 Nov 2016

Thank you both for the fast reply. So just to confirm.... with these 2 physical NTFS formatted drives

if I remove them from my current desktop PC, and insert them as drives #2 and #3 into a new desktop that already has Windows 10 Pro 64 running on it's own drive (#1), I will be able to access/read files from both drives #2 and #3 without issue?

I fully understand executable programs would need to be reinstalled fresh.

--jay

ThrashZone · 13 Nov 2016

Hi,
Yep pretty much :)
One little item though if it has a boot loader on it you're machine may attempt to boot to it on startup so connect it well after starting the machine and use a external hdd enclosure they are cheap and good to have around
Amazon.com: Sabrent ECS-STU35K USB 2.0 to 3.5-inch IDE/SATA or Serial ATA Aluminum Hard Drive Enclosure Case (BLACK): Electronics

If you see a 100-400mb partition on it using disk management delete it and that will remove the boot loader from the drive.
Otherwise transfer all your personal files from it to the other machine and format it to clear all the space for new storage.