Tried To Copy Failing Drive To My Other System - File Systems Merged Somehow

hi again.

so i took a failing corrupted drive from one system and hooked it up to my only remaining working system and began copying files and directories over.

now the working system is missing files and the desktop is bare. it looks like some of the directories merged somehow and i copied them over to my downloads directory and now everything is screwed.

can somebody please explain this to me?

so now i have to buy another drive so that i can install windows 7 again and try to get files off of 2 drives now.

how do i do that without any of this nonsense happening again?

thanks

also for some reason some of the directories on the corrupt drive show up as locked and now those same directories are locked on the working system

Edited by he's dead jim, 19 August 2024 - 09:34 PM.

Who advised you to copy the drive...a drive which may be infected...to another drive?

I have never heard of anyone with any knowledge suggesting that as a remedy.

Louis

Edited by hamluis, 20 August 2024 - 07:45 AM.

Three suggestions to try:

> Try starting in safe mode

> Run a repair reinstall of Windows (not a total reinstall)

    Link:  https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-perform-a-startup-repair-in-windows-7-2626170

> Run the file system checker:  https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

[EDIT]: added thought after posting

Edited by ranchhand_, 20 August 2024 - 11:26 AM.

Who advised you to copy the drive...a drive which may be infected...to another drive?

 

I have never heard of anyone with any knowledge suggesting that as a remedy.

 

Louis

i was copying the the remaining files that i needed and accidently copied the directoried instead. i have had this problem before so i try to be careful. wheher the drive was corrupt, infected, or failing still does not explain how the directories seemed to be merged or linked might be a better word. if i put a known good drive to be copied same thing happens. if i delete a directory on the drive to be copied there is no problem. if i copy or move a directory from d drive to c drive, it also copies or moves that same directory into whatever the target folder is. i have only ever had this problem on windows 7. no other versions. in the past i also needed to change permission on a locked drive and it also changed the permissions on the main drive. again this has only ever happened to me on windows 7. if i copy a drive from anything else it is never a problem.

Edited by he's dead jim, 20 August 2024 - 11:31 AM.

...BTW:  When you run the Scannow from cmd, make sure it's an elevated cmd prompt.

...BTW:  When you run the Scannow from cmd, make sure it's an elevated cmd prompt.

thanks for the help but both file systems are screwed beyond repair. i can get the files off that i need but not until i find out how this happened and how to not let it happen again because i have over 100 drives that i have to go through and about 1/3 of them are from windows 7 computers.  as i said earlier this has only every happened copying from windows 7 to window 7.

You miss the point.   Fix Malware Issue, Fix drive Issue. Rescue Files, then figure out what and why.

Corruption does strange things that is why you fix it.