Windows 10: Will Windows Vista hard drive work on Windows 11 as a file drive?

Hi Microsoft, So I have a old Windows Vista computer which I want to retrieve all of my old data off of that computer. I'm going to buy a new Windows 11 PC and get the old drive on the new PC as an external file drive for all my old data. The problem is I don't remember the password to the old PC and it is on it's last life. I'm not sure if I need the password to access all the old data. Will I need the password or not?

:)

 

How to Partiton a Hard Drive in Vista

This is a way to get Vista to see another hard drive that is not associated with the OS. There is some times when your new hdd doesn't seem to want to work well with Vista. But, there is a solution in it.

Open the Computer Management By doing these steps.

• Click on the Start Button
• Click on Control Panel
• Click Administrative Tools
• Double click on Computer Management

You are now in the Navigation panel of the Computer Management.
When in Computer Management, you then have to allow the new drive to be recognized.

• Double click on Storage
• Double click on Disk Management

Now in the middle of your screen there is the layout of the Disk Drives that you have. The drives that are partitioned will show by the drive lettering. The others will just show up as having nothing at all in them. Below that there will be the Disk drives that are installed into the computer. You'll see that the primary one will all ways read as "Disk 0". Then you will have Disk 1 and so on. Under the Disks there will also see your CD-Rom drives.. If there is more then one, it will be labeled the same as Disk drives..

On to the Partitioning of the drive in question.

• Right Click on the drive
• Click to format the drive or Enable Volume. There will be a series of windows that open up. This is Vista's formatting. Just go threw the windows, and make sure everything is the way you want it to happen.
• Once the formatting is done, will take some time depending on the drive size.
• Right click on the drive
• Click on Mark the Partition as Active

After you have done those steps, The drive will be up and running threw Vista.



:Side Notes:
If you are not the Administer to the Os, then you will have to enable it..
You may also want to redo the drive lettering of it all. But, I really don't see a reason to do so. If you do, you have to redo drive paths and so forth.. A lot of work on something so small...

 

Windowed Hard Drives

On the contrary, showing off "slow tech" by adding a window to a hard drive is a "dumb" idea. Do you really want to be showing off a whole "7200-10000 RPM of power" or would you rather show off a plain SSD drive? (If you really desire to "show off")

Adding any window to any drive is just stupid. I just suggested an easier option for you since manufactures don't put windows on the latest hard drives.

 

WD hard drives and Windows Vista

I currently use Windows Vista and I also have three Western Digital my book hard drives. The ones I have are older version my book drives and these work fine with Vista. There are newer version my book drives out now so I dont know if the new drives will work with Vista. Does anyone have these drives and use Vista please let me know if it works or not.

new drive:
https://www.wdc.com/en-um/products/external-storage/my-book-new.html

old drive:
https://www.wdc.com/en-um/products/external-storage/my-book.html