recover data from laptop

bonobo

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Sep 8, 2004
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I need to recover data from primary HD!!

The memory on my latop threw a fit, and now the damn thing won't boot. The computer's under warranty, so I can send it back to get fixed no problem, but that's going to take a few weeks, and in the mean time I need to get my hands on the files that I was working on the day this all happened.

So far I've removed the HD and hooked it up to my desktop with my external HD box on with no problems. Windows recognises it, and I can see the folders I need to access, but I don't have access privilieges so I can't open, copy or delete any files. Is there any way to get around this? How about if I swap it with the master HD on my desktop?

PLEASE HELP!
 

folken

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Sep 15, 2002
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What os are you running on your desktop machine? and what make/model of laptop did the hard drive come out of?

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>
 

jim552

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May 1, 2003
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This should be simple enough to remedy. HOWEVER, this may cause problems/issues when you get a chance to reboot under the original operating system.

Windows creates "Unique Identifiers" for many things. These are are also used for security purposes too.

For security purposes there is also a "Windows Globally Unique Identifier". (Also termed a GUID.) This is supposed to be a unique identifier for each Windows PC.

When you access the hard drive from your laptop the GUID for your current system doesn't match that of the laptop, and the Security Identifiers don't match as well. So you end up having no rights for the files and directories.

You can highlight all NON-SYSTEM directories on the laptop hard drive, all at once is preferred, and then goto "Properties, the Security tab, Advanced, the Owner tab.

Once you are there likely you will see numbers and question marks where user and group names would usually appear. That is because they can't be matched to the appropriate identifiers on the booting system.

You can reset the Owner on ALL files.

This will give you access.

NOTE: As mentioned this may cause problems if you attempt to bootup using that drive when the laptop if fixed. You may wish to do this ONLY on folders that contain ONLY data not on any folders needed by the OS. This way any problems won't inhibit booting.

NOTE: Another less intrussive method is to try to set the permissions, also in the properties but just on the security tab, so that the "Everyone" group has full permissions to everything. I have had this work before, but almost always I have found it necessary to actually change owners. (It could be any group or user I just chose "Everyone".)