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Accessing c drive on external hard drive

Anonymous
2021-06-04T18:29:58+00:00

I really don't know how to explain this. But I have 2 computers. A desktop, and a laptop. The desktop had a lot of dust and one of the fans has blown and an electrical smell from the fan area started. I turned the computer off right away.

Later, I removed the hard disk drive as it has a lot of important (and sensitive) information that I want to retrieve/erase before I take the entire tower in to be repaired.

On my desktop, I have two partitions; c:\ drive with documents, photos, videos, music etc. And D:\ drive that I use solely for games.

On my laptop (from which I'm typing this) the setup is exactly the same. Two partitions; also c:\ drive with documents, photos, videos, music etc. And D:\ drive that I use solely for games.

BOTH desktop and laptop have a C and D drive (both computers have different documents and different games).

So, I bought one of those SATA adaptors that allows me to add the external drive from my desktop, to my laptop. However, it shows external games drive as E drive, and does not list the external C drive, AT ALL. It is the C drive on the external drive I need to access, but it does not list it at all. Only E drive. How do I access external HDD C drive, while on my laptop (which runs on it's own internal C drive)? I tried reallocating drive letters, and it still didn't help as C drive on the external is not showing, only the E drive.

Please can someone advise me on what to do, without wiping other desktop or laptop drives?

Heather

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Rodrigo Queiroz 77,500 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-06-05T06:55:09+00:00

    Thank you for the screenshot. The Games partition takes the whole drive space, as I could see on the Disk Management screenshot, looks like the Documents partition is on another drive on the Desktop PC, like this laptop that has 2 drives (C: and D: are in separated drives).

    Look on the Desktop PC for another drive, it can be a M.2 SSD, which is very small and connects directly to the motherboard (see image).

    If you're not sure about it, you can send a picture of the desktop internals and I will help you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-05T06:46:00+00:00

    Hello, thank you for your response.

    I've screenshotted it. It only shows E, not F.

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  2. Rodrigo Queiroz 77,500 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-06-19T00:02:43+00:00

    I'm glad that you were able to find the other drive with your files.
    I hope you're good now, stay safe and have a great life!

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-18T23:55:11+00:00

    Hello, I am so sorry for the long delay in getting back to you, I have been ill.  I checked my computer, and you were right, there was a separate drive.  I removed it and was able to back up the files I needed.

    Thank you very much for you help, much appreciated! :)

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  4. Rodrigo Queiroz 77,500 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2021-06-04T19:09:18+00:00

    Hi HeatherWheelden,

    I'm Rodrigo, Independent Advisor and I will help you.

    The external drive should show its partition in different letters.

    Example: C: and D: will show as E: and F:

    Because C: and D: are already assigned to partitions on the internal drive.

    You said that only the Games Partition showed to you, and not the Documents partition (let's call them this to make the communication easier.)

    Type Disk Management on the Start Menu and press Enter, send a screenshot of the full Disk Management window.

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