How To Access Files From Slave Drive

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Imperious825

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Hello, everyone.

I recently had a computer technician install a master drive from my old computer into my new computer, making it a slave drive. I did this in hopes of accessing all the files stored on this drive. From what the technician said, I was given the impression that everything stored in this drive will all be accessible once it is made a slave drive in my new computer. However, after the drive was installed, I was unable to find anything--music, pictures, etc. I tried both searching for them by name, and manually looking for them in the E drive. Yet, strangely, the properties window still reports the same storage capacity as before! Then, I highlighted everything visible in the E drive, and viewed their collective storage number, and came out a little over 2GB's, which aught to be right, but the main properties window still reports a usage of 14GB's, which can only be if everything from before is still there.

I am hoping that this is a conclusive sign that everything is still there, just hidden somehow. Can someone please clarify this situation?

Thank you.
 
Did the old drive come out of a Windows 98 or earlier computer? And is it now in a Windows XP or 2000 computer. If the hard drive was formatted in fat32 instead of NTFS, which XP/2000 use, then if I remember correctly you won't be able to read the info. Not absolutely sure and if I am wrong someone will correct me. You can use FAT32 in Windows XP you just have to format the boot drive in FAT32 during setup.
 
What happens if you browse the drive? Do you see any files?
When I browse through the E drive, there's absolutely nothing but software files and other non-essential records. It's as though the rest is invisible, or maybe not there at all.

fastco said:
Did the old drive come out of a Windows 98 or earlier computer? And is it now in a Windows XP or 2000 computer. If the hard drive was formatted in fat32 instead of NTFS, which XP/2000 use, then if I remember correctly you won't be able to read the info. Not absolutely sure and if I am wrong someone will correct me. You can use FAT32 in Windows XP you just have to format the boot drive in FAT32 during setup.
The old drive actually came from a preinstalled Windows XP computer, so I figured there shouldn't be any problem with the format.

I do recall hearing something about reformatting master drives when it's made a slave drive, so I guess it's worth a try. How do I format the slave drive during startup? Do I have to use the F10 key or anything like that?
 
Click start, control panel, administrative tools, computer management then click disk management, right click on the slave drive and click format.
 
If you format the slave drive you're going to lose your data. XP can read NTFS and FAT32 just fine, if you can browse the files then it's working fine. How many partitions were on the slave drive when it was the master in the older machine? It may be that one partition is hidden.
 
you can change file system one time not back and don't stop the process
xp and W2K will read fat32 anyway so you problem is you need to assign drive letter and or take of rights to drive

if you can see the drive in explorer my computer right click on the drive and go to security
add admin or your user name to users groups say ok
if you can not see it there go to ,right click, my computer, manage ,
disk management,
you should see it here and may not have drive letter attached
give it one
if you have important data
PM me
 
I'm sorry, JMMD. I don't know what a partition is.

Samstoned said:
you can change file system one time not back and don't stop the process
xp and W2K will read fat32 anyway so you problem is you need to assign drive letter and or take of rights to drive

if you can see the drive in explorer my computer right click on the drive and go to security
add admin or your user name to users groups say ok
if you can not see it there go to ,right click, my computer, manage ,
disk management,
you should see it here and may not have drive letter attached
give it one
The best description I can offer now is a screen cap of what I see:
diskmanagement.jpg

In this window, do you mean for me to right-click on the E drive on the bottom right section, and select "change drive letter and paths"? The option to "delete partition" is also highlighted for the slave drive.

diskproperties.jpg

Is this the correct window to add an administrator or usernames?
 
If it has XP installed & was password protected you will not see you music photos...etc. Put the drive in alone & boot from it the remove the password & you will see all the files. Or if you don't know the password, use the linux XP boot cd to remove the password. Good luck!
 
Linux will not remove a password protected file system
only the admin password and users password on boot
I don't believe thats the issue
agree to sharing
if you have right click on the E drive and this is the window you get
this is what it should look like



you may need to go to manager to set permissions
if running xp home this could be why you have this view
 

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I asume you have checked that they are not hidden folders? Ive made that mistake before:S

Regards,

Korrupt
 
Actually I got an iso image (NOT THE WHOLE OS) of piece of linux that boots and asks U if you want to remove the "admin password" (You're right). That's if it actually has one
 
As a matter of fact, I did have a password set on the E drive when it was a master in my old computer. I was afraid this might be the problem because I don't remember the PW. However, I remember I asked the technician if a previously-stored password would cause any problems, and he said, 'No.'

Korrupt, I did check under hidden files and folders, but still nothing.

Samstoned, by sharing the E drive, do you mean I should click on "If you understand the risk but still want to share the root of this drive, click here"?

Thank you all for your support.
 
Take out your main hard drive & put in the slave & boot (I think you said it has xp installed) & if it asks for a password, then you have to try it my way & if it doesn't well I don't know!!!
The same thing happens to me when I try to get music from my pal's HDD, with XP installed & an admin password. You will see folders but not his user name folder under documents & settings........ which has music , photos etc
I have the clone cd image file (2.6MB) you just burn it to a cdrw put in the HDD as the main & boot with the CD in the CDROM (Make the cd the first boot from bios) BTW I have dial up so it'll take some time to upload it (PM me if u want it you might get it by the 21st of july when my 20Hrs starts fresh):)
 
Thank you, Groovemaster1, but I'll give it a few tries first, and eventually get around to switching drives if all else fails. Hey! I just remembered the password. LOL. Right when I was in the middle of typing this post. Well, if a password request comes up, I'll get around that, no problem. :)

Thanks again.
 
My friend gave me his old harddrive and that had XP installed with passworded accounts, i just made it slave, popped it in and voila, i could browse his files like it was my own harddrive, i backed off his documents and such that he wanted and I was done, i didnt recieve any of these problems with files not showing up. Literally i could click on F:\Windows\Documents and Settings\Administrator\ etc etc and get his files.
 
OK. Now this is really scaring me.

I suppose the most important question, now, would be whether the fact that it says 14GB's are being used is a definite indication that everything from before is still in there.
 
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