Data Playing Hide And Seek On Old Hard Drive.

Hi, my dad has an older computer that suddenly bit the dirt. Every time you try and start it, it runs for a few seconds then shuts down. I tried putting in a new power supply, but no joy. The issue is that while he has dropbox that he uses to back up a geneology program, a year or so ago he changed something or upgraded the program or something where it quit backing up his work. He has a RootsMagic website that is up to date but the past year or so of data from his work is now unaccessable. I removed the hard drive from the computer and hooked it up to mine, but I can't get any data from it. When I go to the hdd, this is all I see- https://imgur.com/a/Ob4mB

I'm somewhat able to navigate through directories, but when I try and search for 'roots', ie RootsMagic, the geneology program, or even 'geneology', the folder that all the data was in, it just takes forever and never brings anything up. When I go through the folders themselves, it's just program info, like what programs are installed, x86, etc, but I can't find any actual data. Like i had a ton of music, etc, but the 'Users' folder, where I would figure the data would be, is only 29mb and it only has a few sample music and sample videos that came with the computer. I can't find any actual content. Both our computers are PC's using Windows 7.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

Is there a second hard drive? Laptop or desktop?

Please tell us about the machine. Make/model?

 

Welcome to Major Geeks

As the mechanic posted we do need to know those details asked.
As far as screen shots are concerned you don't need to use a website for that just follow this guide to screenshots:
https://forums.majorgeeks.com/threads/taking-screenshots.26019/

A free program that will list, in detail, every file on all drives on those systems is Tree Size FREE:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/treesize_free.html

As far as trouble shooting the system you need to try to access Windows Safe Mode and run check disk and sfc scannow:
Safe Mode:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-start-windows-7-in-safe-mode-2624540
System File Checker:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...er-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system
Check Disk
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2641432/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors-in-windows-7

 

Thanks for the replies. My dad's computer is a Dell desktop (I want to say Optiplex but can't be sure since the computer won't start so I can't run Speccy, etc.) with one 320 GB hdd. My computer is a homemade desktop with a small ssd for the OS and a 1TB hdd for music, videos, etc. I took my dad's hdd out of his computer and have been unhooking my hdd and hooking my dad's up to my computer when I want to look at it. It wouldn't work to unhook my ssd boot drive and hook up his hdd to my computer, would it? Aren't hard drives imprinted with a code or something that ties them to one computer? Is it possible to run the above commands on his hdd when it's hooked up to my computer as described above? Thanks again for the help.

 

Have you tried the users folder ? that is the start point to find his data

 

Hi, yes I've tried the users folder and that's why this is so weird. There are three users folders with a combined data amount of 20-something megabytes- megabytes, not gigabytes. They are named I think public, default and John. Two of the three are empty and the only one that has anything only has the sample music, image and video files that come with a store-bought computer, nothing else.

 

Cloud storage?

 

Please do check out all that Max has offered...............

 

Is it possible to do all this when the drive in question is hooked up as an auxillary drive? Alternately, any idea on what might be done to get my dad's desktop to boot up again? Like I say, I tried replacing the power supply but nothing changed. Thanks.

Data Playing Hide And Seek On Old Hard Drive.

 

If the hard drive of your Dad's computer is hooked up to your system then using the program I suggested (Tree Size) - and the other scans and tests - should work.
Have you looked for a sticker on your Dad's Dell Desktop system that states the full model details and a Dell Service Tag number?

 

I would clone the hard drive before you are no longer able to. Cloning to a new drive may still be possible though the drive appears to be failing.

 

Is the Seagate expansion drive part of your dad's hard drive- if so, it could be a data partition, and the data might well be in there.
Many systems used a separate partition to store data, in case of operating system failure.(I wonder if Seagate expansion refers to a data partition(if that is not part of your own system.)
Have you tried changing the cmos battery in your dad's pc?- That is often a reason an old computer 'dies', or, will not fully start.
Have you tried removing, and replacing ram sticks in dad's computer ?- sometimes dust and fluff , and poor contact results from this.