Find files on hard drive

Ive a new HP computer with Vista system and downloaded the hard drive from my old Dell PC. Now I cannot retrieve my pictures with jpg extensions. And I cannot find my Quattro spreadsheets from my old hard drive. How can I retrieve these?

Finding files on your new hard drive

There are a few ways that we can come at this question, we can look for the files individually, or we can open the program that was used to create them and see if they are easier to locate that way. Beginning with looking for the individual files, the search techniques are different for different operating systems, so let’s go through the XP steps first, and then we’ll look at Vista.

Finding files and folders in XP

To search for a file of folder in Windows XP, take the following steps:

Open the Start Menu and then select Search
When the Search Companion dialog box opens, choose All Files and Folders
Now you can enter the information that you are looking for. You can enter the names of the files, if you know them, or enter the extension and look for the specific files you want in the search results.
The Look In box lets you choose where on your computer to search, in this case, since you aren’t sure where you are looking, you should choose the c: drive or the entire computer.
You will be offered three search criteria: When Was it Modified, What Size is it, More Advanced Options, if any of these fields are helpful, provide more information.
Select Search

Finding files and folders in Vista

Since the search procedure has changed on Windows Vista, many users report problems finding files and folders. On the Vista system there are different ways to look for your data, but the best place to start is with the Search box. There is a Search box on the top of every open folder. Let’s begin by looking for your jpegs.

Open your My Pictures folder, which you can find in the Start Menu on the upper right hand side. It will be listed with My Documents and My Music
Inside the pictures folder, open the Search box in the top right hand corner.
The Search box can find files by file name, text inside the file, common properties, and tags. In your case, you likely want to search either by the kind of file - Pictures - or by the file type or extension - jpeg. For a file extension search it is most useful to put an asterisks before the extension - *.jpeg

All your jpegs should be offered in a list of search results. You can then follow the same steps to open your spreadsheets, but make sure you close your pictures folder and search for the spreadsheet in My Documents, or by extension, if you know it.

Search for files by program

Another way to get to your files is to open the programs that were used to make them. Open the Start Menu and, from the bottom of the list, select All Programs. Find the program that you used to make the files, for example, Quattro for your spreadsheets. Click twice on the file to open it and then see if you can open the documents from there.

Seek remote technical assistance

Without knowing more about how you transferred the contents of your old hard drive on to your new system, it is difficult to give more specific advice. If these steps don’t help you find your missing files, you might want to consider getting remote assistance. A technician can ask you questions and find out how you moved your data and what operating system you use, which will help determine the exact steps to find your files. At Filetonic, we recommend the services that are available through this link www.filetonic.com/support