Laptop Hard drive problem, need important valuable data.. 1

[Lefix]

Alright, to start things off, i turned on my laptop yesterday and it worked fine, but i unplugged it by accident and it shut off (battery doesnt work). So i tried to start it up again and it wont boot up anymore, it shows a error message and then restarts. It wont go into safe mode or anything.

So I have no clue what to do, so i put the Win XP CD that came with the laptop in, and reinstalled Win XP with the option of WITHOUT ERASING everything.

So after i did that, windows looks like a fresh copy of windows and there is nothing on the destop except a recycle bin, then i looked in C and it says 55GB orginal and 11 GB free, so i know that i didnt erase my old files.
But when i try to go in to documents and settings and click on my old folder, it says access denied.

So today i went out and bought a 2.5" HDD Enclousure and try to connect it to my mom's laptop, and it wont recognize what it is, it makes the sound when you connect something with USB but then it says there is a problem installing your new hardware and it might not work properly.

The drive doesnt show in Device manager, but i tried a couple of times and now it shows up as Unknown Device.

Im really lost and i need alot of files on that hard drive, can someone PLEASE help me!

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! THank you!

 

[brianinms]

Not all laptops have usb ports that can power an external drive. Try connecting it to a workstation.

 

[Lefix]

Alright, i found out why my other computer wouldnt recognize it, it was on master, i switched it to slave and now it can see it perfectly fine as a removeable hard drive.

Now the problem is that when i use GetDataBack to search the files, it saids that access denied because i dont have administrator right of the files..

But when i use Stellar Pheonix, it can find everything but i dont know if it can bypass the adminstrator password thingy, because i dont wanna buy the program and then see that it wont be able to take the files out because of the password or administrative right protection..

 

[Freestone]

If the drive can still be booted in your laptop, then you simply take ownership of the folders and files:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[Lefix]

I see, what programs is BEST to use to recover my files? Is there any programs for free and will work good?

Im really desperate, please help me..

 

[Freestone]

You don't need any programs if you place the drive back in the laptop, boot it, and take ownership of the files as described in the referenced Knowledge Base article.

If it can't be booted, then the once program a lot of people here have had good comments about is called GetDataBack (

http://www.runtime.org)

BUT it isn't free, which is why I pointed you to the article.

 

[Lefix]

Alright i took over ownership of the folders and files and everything worked perfectly! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

 

[Freestone]

I am glad you were able to retrieve your data!

 

[vibri2001]

I am having a similar issue as the user above. My C: drive failed so I made it the slave drive and reinstalled Windows XP on another HDD. I can now see the drive as D: and can browse through some of the folders and see the files in them. However, in the 'My Documents' folder some of the subfolders are accessible and some are not. Is it likely that this is also a rights issue as described in the Microsoft KB article? When I hover the mouse over the folders I get the "Access Denied" message on it says the folder is empty (is that normal when access is denied?). There is only 13GB free space on the 120GB drive so I know the files are there but I am not sure the NTFS file structure is intact.

 

[Freestone]

Take ownership of the files as descibed in:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[vibri2001]

Thanks Freestone. Reassigning rights did the trick, except for a few folders.

I reassigned rights at the D: drive level. This allowed me to copy over my data folders from the failing drive to the replacement drive with the exception of 'My Music', 'My Pictures' and 'My Videos'. I was able to browse these folders and move the subfolders individually.

Mission accomplished. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Freestone]

I am glad you were able to retrieve your data.

 

[bjtechjmf]

Thanks Freestone,
I've been having the same problem and stumbled upon this thread and your post. I got everything back.
Thanks again.

 

[firas2513]

hi, i have a problem. my laptop is not starting at all. the fan turns on for 5 seconds, then nothing appear on the screen. i have valuable data on the hard drive, is there a way to copy these data even if the laptop is not starting at all?