Damaged Protected Disk

[Suetonius]

I have a Vista machine which won't boot due to physical damage to the disk.
I want to retrieve data from the disk, but the profile has been password protected.
Is there a way to retrieve this data while I still can?

[Steve R Jones]

How are you access the drive?
If you have slaved it - you should be able to copy it... You then might need to "take ownership" of the files... You can google take ownership..

[Suetonius]

Hi Steve
Sorry for the delay.
In fact, the disk is in a pretty perilous state.
I removed it from the machine and did a backup, which looks to have been successful.
However, when I try to access the profile from the backup (on an XP machine) the access to anything below "Documents and Settings" is blocked.
I may go back to the original disk, but it is getting flakier all the time.
What do you think?

Jim

[Steve R Jones]

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308421

[Suetonius]

Hi again Steve
Thanks for that. Sorry again for the delay.
In fact, I'd focused too much on panicking and not enough on thinking.
The disk has really gone down the pan,now, so I did what I should have done in the first place and reconstituted the backup onto a spare disk then took ownership as suggested above.
All is now sweetness and light!

Thanks for your forbearance and suggestions.
Maybe next time (?) I'll think instead of rushing around in circles.

Dilbert.jpg

Cheers and thanks again
Jim.

[Steve R Jones]

Great. We love stories with happy endings.