Re: Password protected old hard drive user info

"Patrick Keenan" <test@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eNkumtf9GHA.3396@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Betsy" <Betsy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:745A4142-9321-4CB3-8E5A-D4CCBEBBA7FB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi.. I have gotten a new SATA Computer and I have out my old hard drive
on
the IDE cable. I need to access my backed up files in c:\documents and
settings\username but I never removed the old password I had to use to
login.

Now I can't boot from the IDE drive as my old registry is gone (some huge
I/O error) and I need to get the files out. I have the password, I just
can't seem to enter it anywhere to get the access i need.

Can anyone help?

I'm assuming and hoping that by "password" you're referring only to your
old account password. With one exception, that password is not an issue
and it's easy to get past the "normal" case. The exception generally
doesn't come as good news.

Normally, you'll just be getting an "access denied" message when you try
to get to those folders. All you need to do is to take ownership of the
folders, and you will have complete access to the folders and their
contents. Note that the procedure for doing this varies depending on the
version of XP you are using; in XP Home you can only do this from Safe
Mode, while in XP Pro you must turn off Simple File Sharing first (in
Explorer, go to Tools, folder options, View, and un-check the last item,
"use simple file sharing").

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

The process can take a few minutes depending on the number of files.

And I had meant to add these lines but sent the post early by accident:

If you were using XP Home and/or only set the folders to "private", the
paragraph below is not of concern as it doesn't apply. XP Encryption is
not available in XP Home, and must be explicitly set in XP Pro, from
controls not on the same dialog as simply marking the folder as private.


If, however, you were using XP Pro before *and* invoked encryption on any
of those folders, and now cannot boot to your old account and did not
export the account credentials, consider those files gone. The only ways
to decrypt them are either by logging on to that account (which means you
must run that system with that drive) and copying the files to an
unencrypted folder or removing the encryption, or by importing the
account credentials to a new account.

As well, you can specify a data recovery agent, but many people who decide
to use encryption don't take *any* of the steps needed to permit data
recovery. Microsoft did a good job at making strong encryption easily
available, but perhaps not as good a job at making the implications clear.

-pk



HTH
-pk



.

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