Recover Windows XP files from another hard drive

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by LesGreen, Apr 14, 2011.

  1. LesGreen

    LesGreen Bit poster

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    I have Windows XP VM setup on a Mac mini that I own (with Parallels 6). I recently found that I could not turn on my mac mini.

    I have Parallels 6 installed on my MacBook Pro and I installed Windows 7 VM. I took the hard drive out of my Mac Mini and put it in an external hard drive enclosure (USB) in order to try to retrieve the XP files.

    When I plug in the hd encloser to be used on the Mac, I only see the OS X files (which is logical).

    When I plug it in to be used on the Windows 7 VM, I don't see any files. Windows does see the Atapi controller, but no drive letter is assigned.

    Is there any way that I can recover the Windows XP files?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. Kathleen R

    Kathleen R Member

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    68
    did you try a search for this?

    You might try searching for answers, although sometimes its hard to figure out search terms. Maybe a driver issue?

    Of course the other thing would be to back up.

    But one thing I found is that if you are using Time machine--although it doesn't sound like you have been backing up--Time Machine backed up my VM when it was running so I was able to recover my last year's TurboTax tax return.

    This won't help your current situation, but do make sure you invest in a back up drive or 2 (I have separate ones since I am running Win7 in bootcamp as a VM & so use Windows back up currently to back it up--although I need to learn more about that & how to recover files from it) to back up to an NTFS drive & have a mac formatted drive for the mac side using Time Machine which I found was easy to use. Not only to back up, but I was able to browse backups to find individual files just like on my HD.

    I recently got a little Seagate 500 GM ultraportable GoFlex drive that I reformatted for mac. Still using my old windows external HD for the Windows side. Some are saying double back up is even better so I might in the future invest in 1 or more additional external HDs. Always better to be backing up so we don't have a big, oops when there is a failure. I sort of had that, but Time Machine had backed up the VM so was able to recover.
     
  3. joannayis

    joannayis Bit poster

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    Actually you can recover data from formatted hard drive after formatting and it is easy for you to do so. But one thing you need to make sure is that your original data did not be overwritten by the new data or you may not use the software but use the hard drive mood to fix your problem. This method will cost you alot no matter money or time. For the easy way to solve your problem, you may try this software called Hard Drive Data Recovery to see if it works for you.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2013
  4. Specimen

    Specimen Product Expert

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    3,242

    If your XP VM wasn't Bootcamp based, locate the .pvm file (by default in /Users/<username>/Documents/Parallels) and use the XP VM on the other computer in Parallels (you can copy it to your other computer if you prefer), or you can connect the the virtual disk of the XP VM to the Windows 7 VM, all you need to do is add the .hdd file inside the .pvm as a second disk in the Windows 7 VM.

    Kathleen R, it's always good advice to backup, but, I'm sorry to say this, and don't get me wrong, people don't want/need to hear what they could of should've done unless you also have provide some solution to the problem they are having currently.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2013
  5. JoiseW

    JoiseW Bit poster

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    Sure, you can recover the XP files. Maybe your files are corrupted or get deleted by accident. Fortunately, no matter how the files are gone, it is possible to get them back as long as you did not add new files to the drive. Just as talked above, new files may overwrite the old files which are deleted for the space occupied by deleted files are free to new files. Therefore, as long as the deleted files are intact and not erased by new files, you can recover them. The tool you need is just a data recovery, with this tool, you can recover all deleted files within several simple steps.

    Read more on: http://www.iorgsoft.com/
     
  6. Aminsy11g

    Aminsy11g Bit poster

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    Until your deleted data overwritten by the new data, you have a chance to recover them.
     
  7. Wedfjokokji

    Wedfjokokji Bit poster

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    Using data recovery is the most effective way to restore lost, deleted or formatted data from hard drive. the data loss of laptop hard drive is most frequently due to the thermal conditions, viruses, natural disasters, system crashes, corruption, accidental deletion, if it happened to you, stop using your laptop right now. If you want to avoid such things from happening again, you’d better backup crucial data as soon as possible.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2014
  8. Specimen

    Specimen Product Expert

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    3,242
    If people would stop putting SPAM on this thread that would be great.
     
    Maria@Parallels likes this.
  9. Fespattee Fespattee

    Fespattee Fespattee Bit poster

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    Want to recover deleted files ,you can use some recovery software.
     
  10. Tusion26l

    Tusion26l Bit poster

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    Lost or deleted data files are not really gone until something new is written over them.
     
  11. SerenaWilliams

    SerenaWilliams Bit poster

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    Last edited: Jun 3, 2016
  12. Wdkeenn

    Wdkeenn Bit poster

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    Samsung Data Recovery software will assist you to restore files from Android devices. With the powerful tool, you can get your lost photos, videos music ,files and so on from Android SD Card,recover contacts ,messages from android SIM Card.
     
  13. belly

    belly Bit poster

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    Fair to say, it is hard to recover the files. I have tried that for two days with several apps. Currently, no one worked.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2017
  14. Ajith1

    Ajith1 Parallels Support

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    2,719
    We would like to know if you are trying to recover the files from a virtual hard drive or a real hard drive.
     

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