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Question on accessing salvaged Ubuntu boot drive

ca flag

Not a power user, so this may be a very stupid question. My ever-trusty decade-plus old (probably closer to 15 than 10) Ubuntu desktop died. Used it for web browsing and email only. Dead-dead so I assume either a MOBO or a PSU failure. Frankly not worth fixing. For a temp fix I found a windows 10 mini that I purchased last year as a backup to my Windows laptop (wanted it as we went to remote desktops when Covid hit). Am I correct in assuming the easiest way to access this is to slap it in an external SATA enclosure and dual-load Ubuntu onto the mini? Last time I tried something like that many moons ago Windows did not even see the drive. Unfortunately I have been lax in backups and my last 6mo of emails are still in there (Thunderbird). Everything else I really do not care about. This is just for a temporary fix until I buy a new dedicated mini for Ubuntu email/web browsing (prefer to keep the Win10 for emergencies per the original purchase).

Thank you.

Edit: For now all I want is to access the information so I can copy it over to Thunderbird on the Win10 mini. Plus update my backup.

Score:0
ng flag

Assuming the hard drive is still functional, all you need to do is connect the drive to a system with viable hardware and run a live session of Ubuntu.

To run a live session, obtain or create bootable installation media for Ubuntu. Boot the installation media and choose "Try Ubuntu".

The live session is a fully functional version of Ubuntu that does not require installation.

You can then mount the hard drive and access it from the file manager. Copy whatever data you want to another disk.

Nathan S avatar
ca flag
Thank you. It has been so long since I loaded Ubuntu I forgot the live session options. At least when I buy a new mini I can load a recent version of Ubuntu. My old desktop refused to play nice with anything past 16.04.
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