Hi everyone,

New to the forum. I need somehelp! My old laptop died before I could make a backup, so I was hoping I could use the old hard drive on my new computer. I bought an external hard drive adapter for it (USB system) and it will only let me recover files from a sub-user, not the main, which was myself. Clicking on the Main and Administrator files on the hard drive makes a popup which says 'Access Denied'. It doesn`t even prompt me for my password. I have been told it is a question of slave-master, however there is no security option when I go into the Properties of the Drive so I grant access to all users. Is there any way I can recover my files and use this drive as storage or should I just give it up?

Thank you in advance!

Well, if you are trying to boot from the "old" drive, you have to enter your systems configuration screen during startup. When you are asked to enter "setup" or what ever your system calls it just a few seconds after you boot or reboot your system, press whatever key it says like "Esc", "F1", "F2", etc...

Then in your boot options, turn "Boot From USB" support on. Then in boot order, move your USB device to the top of the list.

This should boot to your old operating system where you can access all of the files like you used to. Then move whatever files you want to the new system's hard drive.

There is a possibility that you cannot boot to the old operating system without first repairing it to work with the new system's components.

You other option is recovery software:
Read the following tutorial for more information:
http://www.astahost.com/disaster-recovery-t3395.html

I hope this helps.

vujsa

Thank you so much for the advice. I tried the first option, but I assume the old hard drive does need to be formatted to the new system because it`wouln't boot from the USB Hard Drive. Do you know how to do that?

thanks again!

You need a Windows XP installation disk. Run that on the new system with the USB drive connected then when you are asked if you want to install or repair, choose repair.

Follow the instructions.
Do not allow the drive to be "formated"! Just repair windows.

This will tell windows how to use the new systems components.

Let me know how it works out.

vujsa

Windows defaults to Simple File Sharing when installed. Simple File Sharing removes, among other things, the advanced protection and security options from windows explorer menus. This means that if you have SFS enabled, and suppose your Admin account has Private Folders enabled (as usually it does), you won't be able to get in, and will get the "access denied" when you try to open the Admin folders. To solve this, log in as something other than a guest -- preferably an admin, but i think a power user would work as well. Open Explorer > click Tools > Folder Options > View
Then scroll down to the bottom. The last option should be "use simple file sharing". Uncheck this box. Now right-click on the protected folder, click the security tab > advanced > Owner.
Then the User you're currently accessing windows from should be shown in the list there. Click that user name, and replace owner. Click yes to the confirmation, and now you have access to your previously protected files. If your name doesn't show up in the list, go to the Auditing tab, add your user, and then select both the Inherit and Replace checkboxes below, then apply changes.

This has always worked for me.
One word of caution: It only works if EFS is not enabled. If it is, all you'll do is ruin your files.