Member Avatar for officer239

Hello

This is my first post so please bare with me if it's not up to scratch.

I recently dropped and broke my laptop. I have replaced the laptop and connected the old working hard drive to the new laptop.

I am trying to get some files from my old user account on the old drive but cannot find them in explorer. I know the files are there but I'm assuming that they are potected by my old user account password.

To add to the disaster I have deleted the old windows startup files to save some space so cannot boot from the old drive.

PLEASE HELP!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by xcellpro6

Dani AI

Generated

Brief summary linked to the thread: described an old Windows drive attached to a working machine with some user files not accessible. and correctly pointed at visibility and permission causes. Below are safe, practical recovery options that avoid guessing and minimize risk to the data.

First priorities and safe practice

  • Do not initialize, format, or write to the old disk. Work from a copy when possible. Create a sector-level image if the data is critical before attempting fixes.
  • If access is blocked by NTFS permissions, two reliable approaches are (A) take ownership inside Windows and reset ACLs, or (B) extract files from outside Windows so ACLs are ignored.

Windows command-line approach (take ownership + reset ACLs)

  • On a modern Windows host, run an elevated command prompt and use takeown and icacls to take ownership and grant access, for example:
takeown /f "E:\path\to\folder" /r /d Y
icacls "E:\path\to\folder" /grant Administrators:F /t

See Microsoft documentation for takeown and icacls for details and switches: takeown and icacls.

Boot-from-USB (bypass Windows ACLs)

  • A Linux live USB with NTFS support (ntfs-3g) can mount the partition and copy files without enforcing Windows ACLs. This is low-risk and avoids changing the original disk. See ntfs-3g resources at .

When files are encrypted or deleted

  • If files were protected with Windows file encryption (EFS) or the drive is BitLocker-encrypted, the original keys/certificates are required; without them the files cannot be decrypted ().
  • For accidentally deleted files or damaged partitions, use recovery tools such as TestDisk/PhotoRec (TestDisk) or Recuva (Recuva), but image the disk first.

Cautions

  • Avoid bulk permission changes until a copy exists. If the data is irreplaceable and the disk shows hardware symptoms, consider professional recovery.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for caperjack

it has been my experience that the folders would show ,just when you click on them that you would get the denial ,you are not seeing them for some other reason .
also what windows startup files did you delete .

Member Avatar for officer239

Thanks for the quick response. I deleted the windows folder and program files folder. Do you know of a program that lists all files more comprehensively than a windows search?

Member Avatar for caperjack

Thanks for the quick response. I deleted the windows folder and program files folder. Do you know of a program that lists all files more comprehensively than a windows search?

Don't know of any programs ,doesn't mean there isn't one ,
i re-read you first post ,so you are saying you cant find them ,i first thought you meant you couldn't see the folders, so what files are you looking for ,can you see/open the documents and settings folder ,do you see the admin and different users folders .
some files you created with different programs are sometimes stored in a folder within that programs folder in the Program Files folder .you said you deleted .Some programs default them to mydocuments

Member Avatar for xcellpro6

Hi there

You could also in explorer click on

tools
folder options
view
and select '' show hidden files and folders ''
and then OK

Hope this helps

Darren
South Africa

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