Help recovering data from an old HDD...

[Clockwork_Apple]

A friend of mine recently bought a new Core 2 Duo PC, after his old one died (motherboard was toast) he gave me what was left of his old PC (2.93Ghz Celeron, few useful parts and a nice case). He kept the HDD and asked me to back up his pictures from it onto DVD.

The only problem is I'm having a hard time getting them... I'm using an external USB HDD caddy, and I can access all files apart from his 'My Documents' folder - it says access denied.

(Name is blurred for obvious reasons...)

I have tried using the HDD internally, putting it onto a normal IDE port but it gives the same result. I havent attempted anything else as I have no idea how to procede.

What should I do? Any help is greatly appreciated, he has over 2GB of photo's that werent backed up...

 

[TimoneX]

Have you tried repairing the file structure? Checkdisk, diskdoctor, etc?

 

[Neuromancer]

If he did not encrypt the files (I am assuming not or the folder name would be blue IIRC) then all you need to do is take ownership of the folder.

Right Click-->Properties--> Security somewhere in there (if you dont see Security tab then you need to disable simple file sharing first)

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

Right Click-->Properties--> there is no security... How do I disable file sharing?

In the sharing tab everything is disabled. Do I need to disable it somewhere else?

Also, in properties it says 0 Bytes... I'm guessing because it's access denied it wont tell me how much stuff is in there?

edit: nevermind, found this. Hopefully it works...

 

[diehrd]

use your search feature to look for JPG files on that drive in the enclosure.

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

use your search feature to look for JPG files on that drive in the enclosure.

Yeah, I did that. It found a million or so generic WinXP pictures and pictures for various apps, but no personal stuff.

I've changed the ownership, and its currently working... I probably shouldnt of done this on a USB 1.1 port... I'm gonna be here all day.

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

Yay!!! Thank you so much Neur0mancer! I've got all the stuff back, I'm burning it to DVD now for him.

Does ownership apply after the files are burnt to DVDr? Will he be able to easily access them on his new PC?

Thanks for all the help/ideas everyone

 

[Neuromancer]

Yes the only reason you had to take ownership of them was because they were in a different Users folder. Only the original user had permsission to access the files.

now that you removed them from "My documents" they will be fine until he puts them into his my documents folder and needs them recovered later LOL

I usually put my stuff on a seperate drive so that for all those times I end up formating and reinstalling windows I dont forget to move and save something important.