Member Avatar for colojomo

my hard drive wont boot, so i bought a new one and want to transfer the files using usb, well, my profile has a pasword on i so it wont let me access the files under my profile, i cannot get into the OS to remove the password, i would since i do know the password but it wont let me, i need another way to access these files, method program, PLEASE HELP !!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Ooble

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For : when you attach the old disk as a USB/secondary drive the Windows account password itself does not inherently block file access—it prevents logging into that Windows installation, but NTFS files can usually be reached by an Administrator if you take ownership. Two reliable approaches that were not covered above are: (A) take ownership and reset permissions from a working Windows PC, or (B) boot a Linux Live CD/USB and copy the files off the disk. Important exception: files encrypted with EFS (the "Encrypt contents to secure data" option) stay unreadable without the original user certificate/private key.

Windows GUI steps (safe for XP/2000):

  • Attach the old drive to a working PC and log in as an Administrator.
  • If using XP and you do not see the Security tab, open My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View and uncheck "Use simple file sharing".
  • Right-click the user folder (for example, "Documents and Settings\username") -> Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner -> change the owner to Administrators or the current admin account, check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", apply.
  • Then give the Administrators group Full Control and copy the data to a safe drive.

Linux Live CD option:

  • Boot a recent Live CD (Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc.). Mount the NTFS partition and copy files to another drive or network share. Linux access ignores Windows ACLs and is a good fallback when GUI permission changes are awkward. EFS-encrypted files will still be unusable.

Notes and troubleshooting:

  • : Safe Mode does not universally bypass passwords; it only makes the built-in Administrator available if it exists and you know its password, as noted.
  • If the drive fails to mount or shows I/O errors, stop and consider professional recovery.
  • If EFS is present and you need those files, locate any certificate backups or restore from a full system backup that includes the user keys.

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Member Avatar for tayspen

Boot into safe mode. While windows is botting press F8 then select safemode. Then go from there.


Note: I am fairly certain that botting into safemode gets around the password ;). Correct me if im wrong.


-T

Member Avatar for Ooble

I believe it lets you log in as the Administrator, but you do need to know the password.

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