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old HDD

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 6:35 pm
by Zmoney
Hey, i have my old windowsXP install on a HDD that i need some info off of now. Thing is since i had a windows password i cant acess the my documents and settings on it.

I have tried converting the drive from NTFS to fat32 to take off any file security but i get errors everytime. The drive is kinda messed so i cant get in to windows anyway.

I have tried lc4 but i cant get it to work on a second HDD, just the one that its running windows off.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 9:55 pm
by Brk
Your first problem is that you can't convert from NTFS to FAT32. You've likely screwed all your data.

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 9:58 pm
by Norm
You could try slaving the drive onto another PC running 2K or XP

If any files are intact you can copy them to the other drive.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2003 4:41 am
by Zmoney
yes you can, it dosnt mess anything up. Just takes out any extra "features" that ntfs has.

I would do the slave thing but since what i need is in documents and settings, and that account has a pass, it protects the dir i need.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2003 5:21 am
by YeOldeStonecat
Originally posted by Zmoney
yes you can, it dosnt mess anything up. Just takes out any extra "features" that ntfs has.

I would do the slave thing but since what i need is in documents and settings, and that account has a pass, it protects the dir i need.


Not when read slaved from another computer running an OS that can read NTFS. It will work, I do it all the time. Sometimes, depending on what permissions are set, you need to "take ownership" on the computer doing the browsing.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2003 4:51 pm
by Norm
Originally posted by Zmoney
yes you can, it dosnt mess anything up. Just takes out any extra "features" that ntfs has.

I would do the slave thing but since what i need is in documents and settings, and that account has a pass, it protects the dir i need.
Once you add that drive to another NT system, it becomes that systems drive (owned). In effect thwarting any security you had on it in your OS.

Posted: Thu May 01, 2003 12:47 am
by ghettoside
I just started fixing a sys that had xp but some dork overlaid win98. It was crashing, freezing, wouldn't shut down. got some files off by going to dos. wiped twice, made logical drives, got sys on and most of the apps back in, everything working fine now, finishing job tomorrow.
had trouble on one of my own comps when upgraded to 2k, then got worse when i tried to put 98 back on. ended up wiping and reformatting the drives to fix.
I don't believe it works too good to go from ntfs to fat32.