Need help with mother board and hard drives

[newbe5000]

My mother board recently died but I went out and bought another used computer and slaved my old hard drive and memory to it but because it’s not the bootable drive I am unable to access certain files that were password protected in the old drive. My question is would it be possible to do a one time boot with the old hard drive and the new mother board to retrieve that file? The operating system is xp. Or do I have to get an entirely new mother board and start over? Or maybe is there a wizard or program that will help me get this file back?? Please be easy on all the tech talk I am still learning allot of this stuff and very frequently have no idea what you guys are talking about....

 

[coldmast]

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
warning

Why can't I access my encrypted (EFS) files after resetting the password?

* Because in XP and possibly later service packs in win2k the password itself is used to encrypt the keys needed for EFS.
* Sorry, there is no way to recover the files once the password has been reset.

you should just be able to master your drive and do a repair windows {with the windows cd on boot}
then uninstall your old motherboard drivers and install your new drives {as well as any other hardware, in safemode}

 

[newbe5000]

The system was an e machine w2888 the new one is a t2682 with an after market mother board as well the original discs I have are for the old hard drive but if I use them they will completey erase all the data and return the drive back to factory condition. Do I down load one of these registry erasers or try and get a copy of windows xp?

 

[coldmast]

REPAIR INSTALL with any xp disc, you do own a valid XP license don't you? you can use the serial number from your old computer's XP sticker that way you have less complications then using it off the current machine.

other options include using a livecd to access the files since NTFS security is a joke.

REPAIR works 9 times out of ten, then you can copy your files off the old HDD, and do a clean install after to clean up windows.
use ntpasswd if you forget your password {or anyone else's}

REPAIRING WINDOWS REINSTALLS WINDOWS over WINDOWS, should leave your data alone. Your registry will be fresh {you might have to reinstall certain softwares} and install the new computers drivers if you want to do more then safemode.

why don't you do a google to find out more info so you can do all the steps carefully and properly
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

I wouldn't try anything right away there should be a way to manually decrypt the EFS files using the user password?

try this program
http://www.download.com/Advanced-EFS-Data-Recovery/3000-2092_4-10620087.html?tag=lst-0-2