Recovering old files

So here is the deal. I had an HP DV6226US that I have had for about a year. Monday of last week I came home and the laptop fell smashing the screen. I use the laptop for work so this was kinda an issue but I figured I would be able to connect an external monitor to it and everything would be fine.

When I went to work the next day everything wasnt fine...windows would start to boot up but then crash before ever logging in. So in an attempt to recover the data on my hard drive I went a bought a SATA 2 USB adapter. I hooked up the hard drive only to find that none of the computers I hooked it up to could seem to find the hard drive.

At a loss I decided to order a new laptop (been wanting to do that anyway) and I ordered an Alienware M9750. As some may know, this particular laptop comes with two SATA drive bays. I bought the laptop in single drive config. I just got it to day and when I got home I decided to give it a whirl and plug my old HP hard drive into my new laptop.

I was very pleased to see that the laptop was found and recognized and I seemed to have access to all the data.

The first issue that arose was with permissions. I would try to access a folder only to be told I did not have permission and then I would be prompted to goto the security tab. Once there I tried to claim ownership of the file and I would then have access to it. So I figured I was in luck...thousands of pictures, movies and program data is now back in my hands...happy day indeed.

Not so much...I tried to play a movie..."windows cannot play this file because you do not have permission to..." blah blah something like that. Ok, maybe I need to change the ownership of the movie like I did with the files. So I gave that a shot...still nothing. Now I was a little upset but figured lets try something else. So I tried to open a picture......same issue....I tried copying the file to my desktop...same issue.

So here is my question...is there anyway I can recover these files? I might also put in that the old sata drive from my HP had windows XP pro on it...this new laptop is running windows Vista Ultimate.

And help would be appreciated and sorry for the long post

 

Firstly, XP or Vista?

I would first try turning off simple file sharing and setting the permissions to the directory to "Full Control" hoping that it would recurse to all files. If that's not the case, I would write a batch file to go and do the whole job for me.

You could also try using y-copy ( http://www.ruahine.com/ycopy-file-copy-utility.html) which I know strips file attributes such as hidden, so hopefully it will strip permissions instead of skipping the files that you don't have permissions to! Just copy the files to another location with it.

You might want to try booting with the hard drive in it's original system with an XP CD inserted, and running a chkdsk (go to the recovery console by hitting R at the first screen, select the installation, type the administrator password, then type chkdsk /r). This would likely fix the looping boot and you could copy files that way.

Just some of my initial suggestions.... I do this kinda crap all the time at work >_>

Also I suspect that SATA ---> USB converter you got is just DOA.

 

Im running Vista NOW on my current laptop...the old laptop was XP so all the files I want are on the XP drive. I will try your suggestion with the Y-copy. I cannot boot with the disk in because I do not have access to it at the moment. Its not illegal...just that I was running linux and my boss needed me on windows for some programs we have at work so we used a disk they had and installed XP off that and they have the disk.

I did try booting off the disk and I got an error message saying that a file was corrupted. Ill work on that...thanks again for the input

*edit*I just reread your post...I cannot boot with the hard drive in its origonal system...the screen is broke...and honestly...I took the HD out and threw the laptop away lol

 

if you don't have the XP disc with you then you can download Hiren's Boot CD, a free boot CD that has a utility that includes chkdsk. Download it, burn it to a CD, go to NTFS for DOS (I forget exactly, it's on the second screen, which you hit 9 for, then it's like 5 or 6 as NTFS Tools or something, hit that, then choose NTFS4DOS.)

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

if the old system has a floppy (which I doubt) you can just download the NTFS4DOS floppy creator ( http://www.freewarefiles.com/ntfsdos-readwrite-ntfs-from-dos_program_11100.html) and use that.




EDIT: just read your edit - aw man, I thought you had an external monitor! I wish you hadn't thrown it away and had just sent it to me you can disregard the rest of this post as it can't help you.

 

well...by throw away...I more mean ripped apart to check out the inner workings of a laptop. I might be able to put it back together and plug it into a monitor...I just have to decide what would be better...just trashing all the old data and using the old harddrive as a second 120gig drive (280gigs is better then 160 after all) OR trying to recover it THEN formatting the drive lol.

*edit*Now its really weird...I went to properties and gave myself full control over the entire drive...some errors poped up...so NOW...I can run some programs off the old drive...but not all...and the important section (documents and settings) still has no access :shrug: