Data retrieval from old boot disk

I'm sure this has been posted before, but I reviewed the posts available and did not see what I was looking for. I am a retired mainframe Data Procesing professional who has dabbled with windows for several years. I recently removed the hard drives from some unsupported desktops. I discovered that I needed to pull some data off for future use. I was successful with one, but the second I'd dealing me fits. I'm using a USB connected shell to my current tower. With the first drive, I was successful by just opening the drive with File Manager, selecting the needed data, then using drag and drop to copy the data. When I mount the second drive in the same she'll and open it, all I see are Recovery and System partitions, so no easy way to find the needed files and folders. Apparently, my dabbling in Windows didn't prepare me for this situation. The drive could possibly been formatted under Win 7, or 8. Is there a fairly straightforward way to be able to find the data files and folders that I would like to copy?

Paid versions of partitioning software like MiniTool Partition Wizard or Easeus Partition Master (I've both of them in the same computer, for reasons long to explain; I think Easeus Partition Master has quality problems but it could also work) have a feature for recovering lost partitions, that might be what has happened to your disk. Normally (with whatever names) there's a "quick" search that looks for lost partitions in the usual places where the needed metadata is most likely to exist, and a "deep" search that scans the disk from begin to end.

Many years ago, I was able to recover a lost partition with Easeus Partition Master. What I did wrong was to restore a partition image w/o restoring MBR and track 0, that was an option offered by the sw. Even modern solutions do this (offer it as an option; I'm not expert enough to tell in which cases it should be disabled, but from that failure I've always restored images with that option enabled and I've never had problems; anyway I was able to recover the lost partition).

That's all my experience with this kind of sw (except trying it w/o success with one or two dying USB sticks). This thread Can Recuva help recover lost partitions on HDD? - Recuva - CCleaner Community Forums has links to TestDisk that is free and I've heard a bit about it. I've also heard about Find and Mount, that seems to work mounting the partitions instead of doing permanent fixes ( find and mount recover partitions - Google Search ).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not absolutely sure the partition is corrupt. From the getgo, all I ever saw was Recovery and System. Of course, you guys are probably way more knowledgeable about this than me.

Did you check in disk management to see if the partitions exist and if a drive letter can be added?

Per File Management, the drive was attached as System (G) when it was turned on after being connected via USB. But, when I double clicked on the G drive, all it showed was Recovery and System. When I looked at it in Disk Management, it showed Recovery and System partitions, if I am reading the information correctly.

post a screenshot of disk management window

I did the screenshot, but can't upload itt for some reason. Below is my attempt to upload the file from my computer.



At any rate, in looking at the Disk Management iformation again, I have been able to locate and copy the data I was searching for. Thank you for your help in resolving my issue with the search..

Yeah, I feel like an idiot!!

Thanks again!!