[wrxmatt]

Hi,
Please could someone help me.
I had a problem with my old computer. I logged on about a week ago but my desktop stuff had gone all i had was my wallpaper. EXPLORER.EXE wasn't running and wouldn't run. I tried loads to fix it but i must have made it worse as my computer switched itself off.
I switched it on again but it got halfway through startup and restarted itself, this cycle just keeps repeating. It won't even load in safe mode.
Anyway i got annoyed and brought myself a new computer as i was thinking of getting one before this happened.
My question is can i somehow plug my old hard drive into my new computer and get some pics and music off it? My worry is that it may have been a virus causing it all and i don't want it infecting my new computer.
If i plug it in will it just read like another drive e.g. a floppy drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Matt

ps: I've got a basic knowledge of computers but i'm not very good :-(

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go ahead and plug it in as a slave to the harddrive in the new one (or better yet, on a second controller which will greatly increase the transfer speed)

In order to be infected by an existing virus, the virus would need to be active, which it will not be since the OS is non-functional (except in the case of a boot virus, but this is very rare)

When you boot, windows will discover the new drive and show it as another harddrive.

Your only issues may be a) if you encrypted the data previously, you will not be able to recover it b) you may need to take ownership of the c:\documents and settings\{profilename} folder to recover the data.

How you do this depends on the version of XP you now have (pro or home)

[gerryf]

go ahead and plug it in as a slave to the harddrive in the new one (or better yet, on a second controller which will greatly increase the transfer speed)

In order to be infected by an existing virus, the virus would need to be active, which it will not be since the OS is non-functional (except in the case of a boot virus, but this is very rare)

When you boot, windows will discover the new drive and show it as another harddrive.

Your only issues may be a) if you encrypted the data previously, you will not be able to recover it b) you may need to take ownership of the c:\documents and settings\{profilename} folder to recover the data.

How you do this depends on the version of XP you now have (pro or home)

[troublesome]

b) you may need to take ownership of the c:\documents and settings\{profilename} folder to recover the data.

How you do this depends on the version of XP you now have (pro or home)

hi gerryf,
could you pls explain how i can get back the ownership of the document? i'm using XPpro SP2. i hv 2 hdisk, XP was installed in the 1st hdisk and My Document was configured into 2nd hdisk. my PC was then reformatted/reinstalled winXP n i try to retrieve previous My Document in 2nd hdisk but couldn't get through. but the hdisk properties shown there 8Gb of data inside. pls help me...thanks

[gerryf]

first make sure simple file sharing is turned off

Open MY COMPUTER, choose TOOLS > FOLDER OPTIONS > VIEW, and scroll down and uncheck USE SIMPLE FILE SHARING

Now navigate to the folder with your documents, right click the folder you wish to access, choose SHARING AND SECURITY, choose the SECURITY tab, ADVANCED button, and OWNER tab.

Select your account in the box, check the REPLACE OWNER....box, and click OK

Wait until the changes are complete

[gerryf]

fyi

to accomplish in xp HOME, reboot into safe mode, choose the administrator account, and do the same thing (the SECURITY AND SHARING Setting is not present in normal mode in HOME)

[wrxmatt]

Thanks Gerry,
My first time using this forum and i'm well pleased with the quick reply. I'll try what you suggested.

Cheers, Matt