Dead Acer's hard drive problems

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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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Hello,

My Acer laptop suddenly died few months ago, so naturally I took out the hard drive out and connected it to usb hard drive chamber to my PC. When connecting it to my PC, I can see that the drive is labeled "acer" . But all the folders in the drive load extremely slow or almost unresponsive, and the "users" folders don't seem to open at all. Upon clicking on any of the users, I'm prompted with this message: "you don't currently have permission to access folder" in which I click "continue" to gain the access, but the folder keeps loading forever with no luck.

The users were all password protected on the old computer, but I did not have one of those master hard drive password, just user accounts passwords. can anyone please help me figure out how to gain access to the folders, or at least transfer all the files to my PC? Thanks.
 
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yoji

yoji

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Jul 1, 2011
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we cant help you break or bypass security .. part of toms hardware rules.

But its not breaking rules to say that unless you actually had encryption set.. if they normal NTFS drives - you should be able to access the data by doing what you doing. If you are an admin on the PC you using - it will say you don't currently have permission - but will give you an option to access anyway.

If you really cant.. they we cant help you bypass.. I know its frustrating - but its a fair rule as we have no way to validate that you are legitimate owner of that laptop/HDD so we just cant help
Cheers
 
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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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Hi Yoji,

I know the passwords to the user accounts as they all belong to me, but the permission message I get before clicking on the folder does not ask for a password, just the "continue" button, which I'm guessing why I can't access the folders in the first place.I need to inter the password (which I know) to access the folders. I just need help to figure out a way how to access the hard drive the same way I used to access it from my own laptop. I don't need to bypass the security on the hard drive, I just want it to prompt me with the user accounts password so that I could inter it ND access the users folders, that's all.
 
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yoji

yoji

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Jul 1, 2011
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No.. if it normal NTFS drive.. you can get access by just saying continue. NTFS is not very secure in this regard.. take any drive and data is accessible by just putting into another PC. If it secured with bitlocker or something - that's another story.

Anyway - you should have access. and can copy off.. and "take control" to your account and then set up the accounts again on your PC and resecure them for the different users ..
Bit fiddly.. but can be done in a couple of ways.. (me.. I would copy off.. wipe drive.. set up new users.. and then copy back).

Cheers
 
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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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I assure you that I can't seem to access the folder. As I mentioned earlier, the hardrive itself seem to load extremely slow for some reason (almost unresponsive) and non of the folders in the users folder seem to open, it keeps loading forever with no outcome. I tried to copy/paste all the visible folders in the hard drive to the pc with no luck. I really need help with this is it contains tons of files that are worth of almost 3 years. I need someone to help me figure it out.
 
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yoji

yoji

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Jul 1, 2011
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Well - you did say your acer "died" but did not elaborate..
You sure the HDD is not what failed.. so you are trying access a pretty dead HDD?
What I have described is what should happen for a normal healthy NTFS HDD.. if yours is not behaving in that way.then
you have something else at play here.. and a very sick HDD may be the No1 suspect.

Cheers.
 
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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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I'm not very tech savvy. But, all that I know one day my acer would show a message every time a boot it with some kind of a code. I remember when googling the code, it stands for the hard drive might not be well connected to the motherboard, or something like that. So, I flipped it over and attempted to secure the hard drive well with no luck. So I just took the hard drive out and left it in the drawer for the past few months. I did try to open the hard drive from my other laptop at the time but had the same exact problem described earlier; drive is slow and unresponsive. I assumed that it had to do with my laptop as it is quite slow too. But now I'm trying to access the files on the hardrive from my new PC and still face the same exact problem. The hard drive works fine, but everything is in slow motion, that and the problem that I can't seem to access the folders that fall under "users". I sure hope not that the HDD itself is damaged somehow. Maybe it has to do with it being only compatible with the acer laptop?
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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The drive has 559 (= 0x22F) reallocated sectors and 65472 (= 0xFFC0) pending sectors. That means it has failed. I would clone the drive, sector by sector, using a tool (eg ddrescue) that understands how to work around bad media. Then use date recovery software, if necessary, on the clone.
 
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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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Can you please link me to a guide that can help me do that? I'm not very good with this stuff and will need some kind of a guide to help me do it step-by-step.
 
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jinlin

jinlin

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Jul 19, 2014
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I don't even know most of what was mentioned in this thread, I've been trying to catch-up but it's all new to me. Anyone can recommend a beginner's guide on how to clone the drive to a new one?
 
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D

DataMedic

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Nov 22, 2013
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With your situation, you'll want to use ddrescue (trust me that's your best shot at getting a useful amount of data) but you have to use linux to do it. If you want I send you a way to build a Linux live USB with teamviewer installed so I can show you how to do it.
 
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