[The Skeptic]

Hi.

I have a serious problem. Windows (xp pro) is seriously corrupted. I tried a repair installation but after XP is downlowding the installation files and saves the computer configuration it goes into an endless loop of restarts. The reason I don't reformat is that I have inportant data that I want to recover. The user whose data i need to recover has an administrator password protected account. The password is known but whatever I do I get a message of access denied.

I installed the HD as a slave on another computer and tried to access it with the other computer's operating system but that didn't work. I did what I never do and installed a fresh XP on the same partition (there is only one partition on this HD. I tried to create another one with partition magic but it encountered errors which could not be overcome). Nothing worked. It seems that the password protected account is locked within the corrupted XP and I can't find a way to access it. By the way, other, non administrator user accounts are easily accesible and data from thee was recovered.

Any good advice?


Thanks

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Hi there,

There is a couple of programs you can use. Can I safely assume that you are able to put this hard drive into another computer and see the directories? If so try these two applications.

R-Studio will scan the drive and present you with files and folders it can recover. Usually it doesn't recover the security in place on these files.
http://www.r-tt.com/

Stellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS works just like R-Studio but more thorough.
http://www.freedownl...y_Software.html

Those are a couple of options but they will even restore deleted files. There are also programs out there that don't scan the drive but will copy the files if you can see the directory structure that don't care about who's files they are. Unfortunately I can't find any links to that software and I can't remember the program I used.

*EDIT*
I found this, a bootable DOS disk NTFS reader that can copy to other drives or over the network.
http://downloads-zdn...tml?tag=lst-0-1

Another option is to use a bootable Linux disc such as Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/get.php) and copy the files to another Non NTFS drive if available.

Edited by Alopeke, 05 October 2005 - 09:28 AM.

[Alopeke]

Hi there,

There is a couple of programs you can use. Can I safely assume that you are able to put this hard drive into another computer and see the directories? If so try these two applications.

R-Studio will scan the drive and present you with files and folders it can recover. Usually it doesn't recover the security in place on these files.
http://www.r-tt.com/

Stellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS works just like R-Studio but more thorough.
http://www.freedownl...y_Software.html

Those are a couple of options but they will even restore deleted files. There are also programs out there that don't scan the drive but will copy the files if you can see the directory structure that don't care about who's files they are. Unfortunately I can't find any links to that software and I can't remember the program I used.

*EDIT*
I found this, a bootable DOS disk NTFS reader that can copy to other drives or over the network.
http://downloads-zdn...tml?tag=lst-0-1

Another option is to use a bootable Linux disc such as Knoppix (http://www.knoppix.net/get.php) and copy the files to another Non NTFS drive if available.

Edited by Alopeke, 05 October 2005 - 09:28 AM.

[The Skeptic]

Thanks for the replies. I'll try what you suggested eventhough I am very skeptical. As mentioned in my first post I installed the HD to another computer and had no problem identifying the folder which I look for. My problem is that any accessed is denied to this master folder which contains all the material within the administrator's password protected account. I have the password but I can't get to a point where I can use it. The data is not lost and most probably not corrupted. It just that i can't retrieve it.

[Johanna]

How to Take Ownership in XP
http://support.micro...1&Product=winxp

Johanna

[Baggyboy]

I would recommend BartPE. A pre-installed Windows LiveCD which you can use to boot from and access the directories required. I have had great success with this utility in the past and it allows for various applications to be incorporated into the environment such as HD recovery/repair, etc, in an easy to understand plug-in format.

Check out the Plug-in Repository for a great archive of plug-ins and tutorials. I think that they are also to somewhat automate the process of building your PE disc.

[dsenette]

or you can get the ubcd 4 windows...which is basically a fully configured bart pe "Program" that has all those snazzy plug in's already in it

[The Skeptic]

thanks to all of you. I'll try your recommendations.

[The Skeptic]

I took Johanna's advice, got myself Microsoft's article about how to get ownership of a folder, followed the instructions and it worked like a charm.

thanks to all of you



Ami Yogev

[Johanna]

Wonderful! Thanks for posting back and letting us know what worked for you.

Johanna