Can Vista Recover a Windows 2000 NTFS Hard Drive?

[Guest]

Long story short, my 5-year-old daughter spilled a glass of water into my
Windows 2000 laptop, frying the laptop. No power!

As I had been intending to upgrade the laptop, my primary concern is
recovering the data on the hard disk.

Can VISTA recover files from a Windows 2000 NTFS hard drive? Or do I need
an XP system to recover the data?

I need to know ASAP before purchasing a new system, as I ned to know whether
to purchase a new system with either XP or Vista installed.

Thank you, in advance, for your help.

 

[Guest]

Yes Vista can read Windows 2000 NTFS. You may have to take ownership of the
files.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Long story short, my 5-year-old daughter spilled a glass of water into my
Windows 2000 laptop, frying the laptop. No power!

As I had been intending to upgrade the laptop, my primary concern is
recovering the data on the hard disk.

Can VISTA recover files from a Windows 2000 NTFS hard drive?

Yes.

Remove the drive from the laptop ASAP, if you haven't done so already,
to make sure no water gets to it. Put it into a USB enclosure and, if
the drive hasn't been damaged, the data should be available. You will
probably have to take ownership of it. See
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

BTW, for the future, recognize that data is always fragile and can be
lost at any time. That goes double for laptops. If you have something
on any computer that's important to you, you *need* external backup of
it.