Computer help

Podmark · June 23, 2008, 08:25:48 PM

Hey guys, I need some computer help. A computer broke and it was replaced with a new one. Thing is there's files on the old hard drive that are needed. So I put it in an external case. Only problem is I can't access files in the 'my documents' folder of one of the user accounts. I need a way to access those files.

old computer was XP, new one is Vista. I've tried playing with the security settings but so far I haven't had any luck.

Any suggestions?

Podmark · June 23, 2008, 08:29:17 PM

I had this one idea, put the old HD in a computer as the primary drive. My hope is that it would boot normally and I could just log in and move the files to a folder that I'm able to access.
However I'm not sure if that will work. Can you move an hd to a different computer and access it properly?

Any other ways to get at those files?

zuludelta · June 23, 2008, 09:58:50 PM

Here's how to access protected files under different accounts in Windows XP (I've used the process before to recover files from hard drives, works like a charm):

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

I imagine the process is similar with Windows Vista.

zuludelta · June 23, 2008, 10:32:44 PM

Another alternative process, if you have two optical drives (with at least one drive that can write onto media like CD-Rs or DVD-Rs), is to use Knoppix (a Linux distro that can be run off of a CD drive).

What you can do is to boot into Knoppix (set your PC to boot from one of your CD drives in the BIOS settings), making sure that the external HD is already hooked up. You can then copy the files off of the external HD (I'm pretty sure Knoppix can bypass Windows XP's file ownership system) onto removable media (Knoppix supports disc burning).

Get Knoppix here:
http://www.knopper.net/

zuludelta · June 24, 2008, 09:24:17 AM

Quote from: Podmark on June 23, 2008, 08:29:17 PM
However I'm not sure if that will work. Can you move an hd to a different computer and access it properly?

It depends... if it's been installed with a stand-alone version of Windows, it should work. However, if the HD was taken from a system that was already factory pre-loaded with Windows, it could be keyed so it only works within a set range of PC configurations (to prevent software piracy).

Podmark · June 24, 2008, 11:15:58 AM

Quote from: zuludelta on June 24, 2008, 09:24:17 AM
Quote from: Podmark on June 23, 2008, 08:29:17 PM
However I'm not sure if that will work. Can you move an hd to a different computer and access it properly?

It depends... if it's been installed with a stand-alone version of Windows, it should work. However, if the HD was taken from a system that was already factory pre-loaded with Windows, it could be keyed so it only works within a set range of PC configurations (to prevent software piracy).

It's not a factory preload, so I might give this a try.
Thanks for all the ideas, I'll let you know how it goes.