Hello and help? New PC old HardDrive

[coolhandz]

Hi had a major motherboard crash on my old pc so ended up buying a new system... I took out my old harddrive and am running it through a Ultra external case plugged into the PC through a USB port. OK... now the new system sees the drive and most of the files but unfortunately I kept a lot of important stuff (and my email info) through the Administrator or owner folders - desktop folders and such... it won;t allow me access to the admin folder of the old drive.. and the owner folder seems to not have the folders it used to... is there wanyway to recover this stuff? As I said the PC sees the drive no problem - just not the areas I need

 

[agi_shi]

Hi had a major motherboard crash on my old pc so ended up buying a new system... I took out my old harddrive and am running it through a Ultra external case plugged into the PC through a USB port. OK... now the new system sees the drive and most of the files but unfortunately I kept a lot of important stuff (and my email info) through the Administrator or owner folders - desktop folders and such... it won;t allow me access to the admin folder of the old drive.. and the owner folder seems to not have the folders it used to... is there wanyway to recover this stuff? As I said the PC sees the drive no problem - just not the areas I need

<Drive>:\Documents And Settings\<User>\

Note that <Drive> is your drive letter and <User> is the user you want. Then in there you have "My Documents", "Desktop", etc.

 

[coolhandz]

Hi thanks for the response....
I can access the User folder through the Documents and Settings Folder and the desktop through there however desktop folders do not show - only application shortcuts... and any idea where I would search for old Outlook mail ?

 

[sylibull]

Maybe a hard drive recovery program would be able to retrieve your files. Bad Copy Pro is one such program, but there are several other programs that may help with this problem.

C:\Documents and Settings\[Your user folder]\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook is the default file area for MS Outlook.

I hope this helps.

 

[coolhandz]

Thanks again - I will try a hard drive recovery program... right now i'm not showing the Application Data on the old drive... I know it's there - it was all intact and working fine - the trick is getting it out of there

 

[sylibull]

Have you tried putting your old hard drive in the main C: drive position (boot drive) inside your new computer? You would probably need to have your Windows disk ready to do a recovery, but I've done this before and everything worked great afterwards. Then when you get your files copied, put your new drive back in place.

Good luck.

 

[coolhandz]

no haven't tried that... could I boot from the usb drive?

 

[sylibull]

Well... maybe. It's worth a try before you go to the trouble of opening the box. But switching hard drives is pretty easy. I feel certain this will solve your problem.

Good luck.

 

[coolhandz]

would I not have any bios problems if I do this?

 

[sylibull]

No BIOS problems. You will have driver problems, but Windows will handle all of that when it does a recovery (from your Windows disk).

Are you going to try booting from the USB drive first? I don't have any experience with external drives.

 

[Rick]

it won;t allow me access to the admin folder of the old drive.. and the owner folder seems to not have the folders it used to...

Access denied? You need to take ownership of your files using your new computer's admin account. Refer to that link for a guide to do this.

Maybe a hard drive recovery program would be able to retrieve your files. Bad Copy Pro is one such program, but there are several other programs that may help with this problem.

This won't be necessary.

Have you tried putting your old hard drive in the main C: drive position (boot drive) inside your new computer?

This will most likely end in failure because Windows XP and 2000 cannot be transferred to another computer with a different board chipset (which this probably is); however, Syilbull's suggestion using Windows recovery may get your old drive to boot up on your old computer... But this will create a whole host of additional problems, including having to install drivers and re-activating your Windows if you're using Windows XP. Not recommended.

could I boot from the usb drive?

Windows XP or 2000 cannot be booted from a an external USB drive.


So, basically, the best way to transfer your files is to do what you were doing (Old drive in USB enclosure) and using the ownership change trick. That should allow you to copy your files. Unfortunately, restoring "old Outlook mail" can be more complicated than just copying a file and your customized settings and installed programs etc.. are (for all intents and purposes) lost. You may need to do some research to get things back the way you want them, but we'll be glad to help.

 

[coolhandz]

ok - was able to get through a change in permissions - not an easy task!!! And as far as recovering Outlook Express through some diligent searching I found where the old files were archived and was able to import - so everything is a GO now!!! Thanks for all your help!

 

[sylibull]

Thanks, Rick.