Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 21

Thread: hard drive failure

  1. #1

    hard drive failure

    HI, I have a slight problem. My primary computer failed. When turned on it said operating system not found (win xp pro). I pulled it out, put a new one in and reinstalled. Now I'm trying to recover the information on the old hard drive. I can access everything on the drive except "my documents". It says "not accessible. Access is denied." When checking the properties it is listed as read-only. It will not allow me to change this. My question is: Is there some way around this or a program that will allow me to access this folder? I put the old drive into an external hard-drive carrier and that is how I'm accessing it. The main thing I want to get off of it are all the family photo's I had stored on it. The wife is pissed as hell thinking they are lost. Something about the fact that I originally assured her how safe this would be. Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you people can give me.

  2. #2
    Senior Member hesperus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    416
    I have a slight problem . . . The wife is pissed as hell . . .
    Hmmm. A master of the understatement.

    I can't vouch for this personally, but here's what a little googling turned this up. The poster says it worked.

    Help Needed to access files from OLD hard drive !

    This is the situation, my old computer running Windows XP Pro crashed, I bought a new computer running XP Home Edition and took the old hard drive and set it up as a slave on the new computer. I was able to transfer all of my picture files from the old hard drive without a problem since I had them in a regular folded under the main C: drive (Now F: drive).
    The problem is . . .
    http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com...ad.php?t=14070
    .

  3. #3
    This is a laptop, no room for second drive, thus the external hard drive caddy.
    ~Amorphous~

  4. #4
    Senior Member hesperus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    416
    I can't see that this makes a difference . . . ?
    .

  5. #5
    Right turn Clyde Nokia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Button Moon
    Posts
    1,696
    Well as you didnt say what Operating System you are using, I willl have a guess at XP?

    One of the reasons you cant access it is beacause you have your old Operating System installed on it and you need to have the right permissions to view the file system and certain folders on the drive, (benifits of NTFS). If you dig around you will find that there will be other files on it you wont be allowed to open.

    Some steps you can try to help are:

    Make the root of the drive "Shared" and see if you can access it then - it may ask you for a username & password
    or
    Just see if you can make the My Documents folder shared
    or
    See if you can drag it into the shared documents folder

    Can you copy and paste/send to, to your new hard drive

    Install an OS that does not conform to the NTFS rules, i.e Linux then boot into Linux and you will have full and unrestricted access to your windows partition.

    Or as you said the hard drive failed it is feasable that there is some physical damage to the hard drive and thats why you cant access the folder. Feasable but unlikley to just affect one folder, try running a surface scan on the hard drive just to see if there is damage.

  6. #6
    It doesn't make sense what he's saying.....some elucidation needed.....anyways if you can see both HDD's under my computer and you have sufficient privileges, right click send to.

  7. #7
    Win xp pro...first sentence in original post . Already tried making root shared and making folder shared. Says access denied. Will not let me copy to shared documents folder, move to shared documents folder or access the folder in any way. I'm sure it does have to do with the permissions but haven't found any way around it yet. I have administrator priveleges on the new hard drive, and had it on the old. Will not let me do any thing with the folder. And yes, there are a few other things I can't access but don't need anything from them.
    ~Amorphous~

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Hawaii
    Posts
    350

    Lightbulb

    This is XP Pro. If you've reinstalled on a new system, the SSID for a user with the same name will not be the same. This is a security feature.
    Try this:
    Right-click on My Documents, choose Properties, and then the Security tab. Click the Advanced button.

    On the first tab, Permissions, Click the "Add" button. In the box, type your username. I don't believe that you have to precede it with the domain. After this, click 'OK', and in the box that comes up, check the "Full Control" box. After all that, you should be good to go.

    A_T
    Geek isn't just a four-letter word; it's a six-figure income.

  9. #9
    Sorry, no security tab is listed under properties box. Thanks anyway.
    ~Amorphous~

  10. #10
    Right turn Clyde Nokia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Button Moon
    Posts
    1,696
    Originally posted here by amorphous
    Win xp pro...first sentence in original post .
    Sorry, my mistake I didnt see that!

    Due to the way NTFS works it is highly unlikley you will ever be able to access certain folders on your old hard drive from another hard drive using XP. There may be some third party software (infact I am pretty sure there will be) that will alow you to do this, try a web search see what it shows up.

    Failing that install a Linux OS or live Linux CD and you will be able to access the folder with no problems.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •