Problems reading a hard disk

**PaulR** · 06-09-2009

My "lovely little lappy - Omnibook 6100" died a few years ago (I really must update my profile). There are some files on the hard disk that I would like to extract but unfortunately I password protected my area in Documents and Settings.

The hard disk is fine and, putting onto an eternal hard disk adaptor I can read all the other sections of the disk but when I try to access my own area it simply say Access Denied. I know the password and would willingly put it in if I were asked!

Any ideas what I should use to access the protected area or remove the protection?

I feel a bit embarassed to post this as I'm supposed to be an IT bod and people come to me with these sort of problems

***pgh13*** · 06-09-2009

could you add an account to the laptop with previous user name and password?

**Topper** · 06-09-2009

Originally Posted by pgh13

could you add an account to the laptop with previous user name and password?

The laptop is no more how can he do that?

I am not familiar with the type of password you have set on there Paul and what was the O/S?

If it was Windows 98 then I have an Omnibook xe3 you could drop the drive into it will of course not boot cleanly i.e finding different processors etc but it should be sufficient to remove any password protection, since I suspect that area of the drive will be encrypted now and unless the drive is booted up there will be no way of reading it.

**PaulR** · 07-09-2009

Sorry, hoist by the petard of not providing enough information.

OS is Windows XP, probably only SP2, and the password is the one you have to supply to sign on in XP, not a bios one.

The problem with putting the hard disk into another laptop is that XP doesn't like too many changes in hardware at once. I believe that it will only handle 2 or 3 at time, such as memory increase, hard disk size, motherboard, video chip etc. I have tried this before and it refused to boot.

**Topper** · 07-09-2009

Well I have done it a couple of times with XP, and I have 3 different lappies to choose from as well. If you want to try let me know, only problem is I am away tomorrow for 10 days.

**Mickha** · 07-09-2009

I have never found any problems with the XP password, but then usually I've run the hard drive in safe mode, logged in as administrator, and accessed the files that way.
Or I've run the drive as a slave, in my PC, using an adapter, and had full access, to all the files, using explorer.
Have you tried using Hirens Boot CD? Although as you have the drive fitted externally is it recognized on boot up or does it require drivers in your Windows Operating System?
Have you got a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter? The last one I picked up was less than £1 off Ebay

. If so you could try running the laptops hard drive in your PC, and see if you can access the files.
I don't even bother fitting them I just remove the side panel and connect the cables externally.
The one I used was similar to this, but I'm sure your local PC shop should have one.

***2cvbloke*** · 07-09-2009

If you start your system up in safe mode, navigate to the locked folders (usually your Username), right click on it, select properties, go to the Security tab and then the permissions button, through that you can set the permissions on the passworded folders to be accessible by all, and you're sorted...

***pgh13*** · 07-09-2009

You can get a very nifty external drive case for 2.5 drives for about a tenner. They have 2 USB connectors at the host PC to give enough ooomph so you don't need a separate PSU

**Topper** · 07-09-2009

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

If you start your system up in safe mode, navigate to the locked folders (usually your Username), right click on it, select properties, go to the Security tab and then the permissions button, through that you can set the permissions on the passworded folders to be accessible by all, and you're sorted...

But he hasn't got a system....... that is the point lappy is defuncted

Originally Posted by PaulR

The hard disk is fine and, putting onto an eternal hard disk adaptor I can read all the other sections of the disk but when I try to access my own area it simply say Access Denied. I know the password and would willingly put it in if I were asked!

To me this from post 1 indicates Paul is already using an external hard drive adaptor

***2cvbloke*** · 07-09-2009

Originally Posted by Topper

But he hasn't got a system....... that is the point lappy defunct

I meant on the system being used to access the drive, AKA a PC or another laptop, done it many times myself, both for personal drives and when I was working at the computer shop...

**PaulR** · 07-09-2009

Topper is correct, the HD is connected to an external HD adaptor and to my other lappy via the USB.

I've just tried to access the forbidden area and a strange thing has happened. It may have been something I've done with removing the read only tag from the folders or not but I can now access the folders!

It's not all fixed yet though as when i double click on a file it doesn't yet open. The Word files even say that I don't have permission to open them so I've got a bit more work to do yet.

Why it should be changing now when I've been unable to get in before I've no idea!

**Channel Hopper** · 08-09-2009

PC Inspector is the software I use to pull anything out of a corrupted drive. I ha a tendency to ignore any password protection.

***compufunk*** · 08-09-2009

Did you use encryption?

If so you may have trouble accessing the files.

If the user folder structure was just made private while applying the password, I normally boot a live Linux CD to get around this problem.

Slax is one distro that does this fairly well, i.e I've gotten it to recognise drives that other distros didnt.

**PaulR** · 08-09-2009

Originally Posted by compufunk

Did you use encryption?

If so you may have trouble accessing the files.

No, not encrypted

Originally Posted by compufunk

If the user folder structure was just made private while applying the password

That's exactly it.

Originally Posted by compufunk

I normally boot a live Linux CD to get around this problem.

Slax is one distro that does this fairly well, i.e I've gotten it to recognise drives that other distros didnt.

Would that work with disk in question being now an external drive attached via USB?

Besides it's not a question of the drive not being recognised. That was never the problem, it's being able to open the files themselves. I get a warning message saying I don't have access rights.

**HB13DISH** · 09-09-2009

Have you tried copying the whole folder to your PC, and then try to open the files from the PC? or you get error message when you try to do this?

***compufunk*** · 09-09-2009

Originally Posted by PaulR

Would that work with disk in question being now an external drive attached via USB?

I cant see why not, I've done it often enough.

Originally Posted by PaulR

Besides it's not a question of the drive not being recognised. That was never the problem, it's being able to open the files themselves. I get a warning message saying I don't have access rights.

I realize it was not a question of the drive being recognized under windows, I only mentioned this because certain disks may not be recognized under certain flavors of linux.

One small thing that may be significant when you are copying the files/folders to a new location. If you can, try to copy to a FAT drive/partition. This might remove certain file attributes that are causing you grief.

**PaulR** · 10-09-2009

Originally Posted by HB13DISH

Have you tried copying the whole folder to your PC, and then try to open the files from the PC? or you get error message when you try to do this?

Originally Posted by compufunk

copying the files/folders to a new location.

Already thought of that. Tried copying a file and it won't allow me to.

**PaulR** · 30-09-2009

I tried using PC Inspector and it just threw up error after error trying to read the directories, sorry folders.

What I DID find was a free program called DiskInternals NTFS Reader. It worked a treat and I was able to suck all the info I wanted off the disk.

_http://www.diskinternals.com/download.shtml towards the bottom of the page.

There's also a program called Linux Reader which I should be able to use for another problem I have

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