Hard disk failure recovery of "password protected" desktop files.

[Guest]

Hi,
I had a HD/boot failure on gateway laptop (it was blue screen, error x51).
I took out the HD and took it to a computer shop. The technician was able to
back up files from the HD to CDs. HD was mechanically ok. I had him back up
(a)c:\document and...\myaccountname\desktop (myaccountname was "password"
protected) and (b) directory/files under C:\commonfiles. size of c:\.. and
the c:\documents..\desktop is about 300mB each with multiple text & .rtf/.doc
etc files
1.All the files in desktop and C:\ and c:\commonfiles have names and size
that were as before the hd/boot crash. I have a newer laptop with XP-home and
word2002 (old gateway laptop also had xp-home & word 2002/office10) and i
tried to open the "backed up" CD using it.
2. I am able to open *.txt files under c:\ using note/word pad. (i do not
have any *.doc or .rtf files there)
3. I am NOT able to open ANY files , .txt,.rtf or .doc from the
c:\...\desktop folder. all it shows is "vertical rectangles" in the MS word
2002 and the NOTEPAD just has blank screen.
What is going on? why can't i see any of the text/doc files in the backed up
c:\documents and..\desktop directory? Please help, thanks in advance.

 

[Ted Zieglar]

"How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421