I've got a problem.
The motherboard on my laptop died and regardless of support contracts, Lenovo says it can't repair the mother board for nearly 3 weeks. If I wait that long I'll be unemployed.
I need to get files that are on my drive (which is 32-bit Vista). These are a combination offline mail files, desktop files and such all under my user folder.
I have spare laptop (different model, etc.) which has Vista, but when I've tried to access files from one Vista disk on another machine (in an external USB device) I've always gotten access denied messages.
Is there some way that by providing passwords or accounts/passwords for my account on this drive (when it was in my broken laptop) that I can get these files on my working laptop?
It seems to me that I ought to be able to provide some sort of credentials to do this. I can't just put the drive into my working laptop. Vista fails as it boots (probably due to drivers and such).
Is there a tool, hack or something I can use if this isn't support in Vista? I'm looking for any options available.
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You can access your files easily by taking ownership of your files from the old hard drive on the new computer
Check this website for step-by-step instructions with pictures and everything: http://www.vistax64.com/tu
I suggest their OPTION TWO: Through a Windows Explorer Window
Are you connecting the hard drive as an usb to your working computer? Does your working computer support boot to a USB device? You might need to enable it in BIOS first and set USB external device as the first boot device.Then boot to your old hard drive instead, maybe worth a try instead of all this permissions
A comment and a question.
First to snazy - I already tried just putting the drive in my "spare" laptop, but Windows crashes when i do this. Clearly it's trying to initialize devices that are different. I don't know if I can do a safe boot to DOS only (will try later) and copy the files I need to a USB thumb drive or something. It may be that the computer won't recognize the USB without a full Windows boot.
To the others - I have to imagine that in order to take ownership of these files I need the administrator password I used when installing Vista on the broken laptop. Otherwise, anyone could just steal drives and use them. Either I need the administrator password on the old laptop or my account and password. I have both. I just want to clarify that we're not talking about the administrator password on my working laptop. That just wouldn't make sense.
Can you confirm that we're talking about passwords on the "broken" laptop system?
I dont think it has anything to do with security. Try that:
Click Start/Computer, then right click the external hard drive and select Open with. Browse to explorer.exe.Does it open the drive then?
If the option Always use this program to open...., you need to delete the autorun.ini on the external hard drive.
You do not need the old ADMIN password of the drive, you just need to be logged in as ADMIN on the machine your using to retrieve the data. Yes anyone with ADMIN credentials can take ownership of files and folders if the drive is local to the system.. That is why you need to use it as an external device.
I have successfully done this a bunch of times. It works flawlessly to get access to otherwise LOCKED files.
Sorry to say Snazy, but simply deleting an INI file will not work for this guy.
if he follows the instruction I have provided above it will work. It has everything to do with security.
Well this security gap is pretty scary. Once I've gotten my files I'll certainly be buying a drive with FDE.
At this point, I've purchased an external 2.5" USB enclosure and I've put the drive in it and I'm taking a spin at opening my account folder under users. I asked me to switch to admin "mode" (I'm an admin on this laptop as well).
I'm painfully waiting. Unfortunately, I've got 14, tunes in my music folder and tens of thousands of other files. It appears to be checking/updating every single file - which an external USB powered Drive is going to take quite a while.
Next I'm going to copy my mail files (at least) to my "spare" lappy so that I don't accidently mess up my drive for when they do fix my broken lappy. I'm hoping that nothing I do above screws up the drive for when it is fixed. I guess I won't know until that happens.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: ITSPPosted on 2009-10-26 at 09:57:55ID: 25664280
You need to take Ownership of the profile directories:
Connect the drive with an external USB adapter or 2.5" external HDD case.
1. In Windows Explorer window, locate the files or folders that you want to take ownership and grant or change full control or other access permissions.
2. Right click on the file or directory, and then select Properties on the right click menu.
Open Folder Properties
3. Click on Security tab.
4. Click on Advanced button at the bottom.
Take Ownership
5. In Advanced Security Settings dialog window, click on Owner tab.
6. Here you will be able to see current owner (i.e. TrustedInstaller). To take ownership of the object, click on the Edit button. If UAC prompts for administrators password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.
7. Additional Advanced Security Settings dialog will appear. Highlight the user name (for example, Administrators) in the Change owner to box that you want to assign as the owner for the object. Click OK to make the change.
8. Back in original parent level Advanced Security Settings window, you will see the existing owner of the file or folder has changed to the user you just selected.
9. Click OK button to exit this window.
10. Click OK again to exit completely from the Properties window.
11. The ownership is now belonged to user or user account that been selected. To assign necessary permissions to the user too, repeat step 1 to 3 to open the objects Properties window again.
12. In objects Properties window, click on Edit button to change permissions. If UAC prompts for administrators password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.
Change Files and Folders Permissions in Windows Vista
13. Highlight the Administrators or the user who wants the permissions on the object be changed in the Group or user names box.
If the user ID or group that you want to manage the permissions for the object doesnt exist, click on Add button, and type in the user name or group name desired into the Enter object names to select box, and finish off by clicking on OK.
14. In the Permissions for Administrators box below (or any other user name or group name you chose), click on Full Control under the Allow column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.
Assign Full Control Permissions
15. Click OK twice when done.