retreiving files off of hard disk

[Guest]

One of the computers here at my office had a major meltdown. so far as i can
tell, the power supply, and either the CPU or the MOBO have perished. I
plugged the HD into an external USB enclosure and have determined that the HD
is still in working order.

I would really like to copy the files off of it onto an altogether different
computer. When i attempt to browse the user's documents, i get the error
message "access is denied". So far i've attempted to create an account on the
new computer with the same UN/PW as is on the old HD, and i've logged onto
the new system as an Administrator. neither work for me.

i'm assuming that i can connect the HD as the main drive on a system and log
in that way... my only problem with that is that i don't seem to have an
working system available. And trying to use the new system, i run into an
issue where the computer will not even boot into safe mode...

any suggestions? with as stressed as i am about this ordeal, i'm sure i'm
forgetting to try many different things.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

With the HD in another computer and logged on as an administrator, use
the following article to take ownership of the files.
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=308421

 

[Guest]

Can you not plug the disk into the usb enclosure and then connect that to a
usb port on your machine? If you can and you are not seeing the disk, right
click my computer | Click manage | Click disk management and check that the
usb drive has been assigned a drive letter. If it hasn't right click on the
drive and click change drive letter.

You could also try plugging the disk into another port on the ide cable of
your machine, you'll need to make sure the jumper on the disk is set to cable
select but this will then add the disk as a secondary disk on your machine.
You may need to go through the disk management part mentioned above to assign
a drive letter.

Steve

 

[Guest]

I have a question on this same topic.

I have a laptop that will not start up. I can hear the hard drive clicking.
Is there a way to access a laptop hard drive to remove files so that I can
begin to fix the broken machine. Any advice will help. Thanks.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Jeff,

If you cant access the HD from the system itself, then your best bet
would be to remove the hard drive and seek out a restoration
specialist.