NTFS hard drive

[windowshelp]

I have an external usb hard drive formated in ntfs. i am
running windows xp. if my computer crashes, can i just
plug my external hard drive into another computer. will
another computer read this hard drive if it's running xp?

 

[zag]

Generally speaking - yes it will read it. Why not try it
to make sure?
z -------------------------------------------------------

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

You may need to take ownership of files/folders on that drive in order to
access them, but this isn't too hard. Don't encrypt anything on that drive
or you're SOL.

 

[Guest]

i thought that windows xp gives permission for the
files. so if it is a different computer, will it be
possible that it cant read them.. what if the files are
encrypted?

 

[Randy Byrne [MVP]]

Yes, BUT...

If you have explicit file/folder rights setup or you have encrypted folders or files,
they will not be readable.

Randy

 

[Pavel]

It will. If there are files on this drive that are encrypted then these
files will not be readable by another computer unless you created an
recovery certificate on the originating computer and transported this
certificate to the new computer. See your help screen on your PC for more
info about this.

 

[zag]

If your files are encrypted you wouldn't really want them
to be read by another computer would you? Unless the
other computer has the key, of course.
z -------------------------------------------------------

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

If your files are encrypted you wouldn't really want them
to be read by another computer would you?

If the other computer was mine, I guess I would - but EFS scares me,
frankly.

Unless the
other computer has the key, of course.

Natch. ;-)

 

[Al Dykes]

You may need to take ownership of files/folders on that drive in order to
access them, but this isn't too hard. Don't encrypt anything on that drive
or you're SOL.

If you run with administrator privilages you should be OK. I move
NTFS file systems between machines all the time.

 

[Alex Nichol]

i thought that windows xp gives permission for the
files. so if it is a different computer, will it be
possible that it cant read them.. what if the files are
encrypted?

The account on the other machine would need to "Take Ownership" - read
up on that in Help and Support. That is no problem.

Encryption would be much more of a problem, involving a back up of the
encryption certificates (and if you encrypt you *must *make such a
backup) and its recovery - and I don't know how that works out if the
account is a different name. I regard NTFS Encryption as a very
dangerous tool - if you slip up on such things the files become
irretrievable; and in the ordinary course of things they are no more
secure than your password to log on with. So use some third party
password protection if you are contemplating this sort of transfer