Question(s) on transferring files from one HD to another

Sam Bronkowitz · Post by **Sam Bronkowitz** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:06 pm

Hey guys, I've got a couple quick questions that I hope you'll be able to help me out with.

The short backstory is, that it seems like some genius using my machine decided to install XP SP2 on it (SP1 was installed), without my knowledge and without backing up ANY files on it. After the installation, XP refuses to boot, as it just hangs during the bootup. I cannot even start the system in safe mode. The only way I can seem to get anywhere is in the Recovery Console using my XP cd.

I've tried a couple different methods of "fixing" XP through this to boot (including removing the SP2 installation), but so far, little progress has been made. At this point, XP starts to boot, but a few seconds before it would normally hit the login page, the HD shuts off (:wth

and the machine restarts (with the HD still turned off).

At this point, I figure I'll just back the files up on my second machine (running Win2K), wipe the other HD, and start with a fresh install of XP. However, it is my understanding that (and I haven't tried this yet anyway) files located under My Documents are encrypted, and cannot simply be accessed like other files when you slave the drive on another system. The question I have is, if this is true, is there any way to get around that? I know the password for the account (if that even helps), I just don't know if I can just drag & drop the files over like I'll be able to for any of the other files.

I've also considered using the "Repair" option when booting off the XP CD, however, I've heard that the contents of the "My Documents" folders may or may not stay intact when doing that. There are a number of necessary files in those folders, so I'd like to avoid any risk of losing those files.

Thanks for any and all help.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 10:32 pm

Sam Bronkowitz wrote: ... However, it is my understanding that (and I haven't tried this yet anyway) files located under My Documents are encrypted, and cannot simply be accessed like other files when you slave the drive on another system...

without addressing the other questions, it depends on whether or not you made your My Documents folder private. if you didn't make it private, I believe you will have full access to the contents when slaved, or booted up in a utility.
I'd try it..

here's a handy little freeware app you can boot from, and you can copy files with ntfs reader

sorry I'm not more help, been sick for several days & headed back to bed. hope this helps until someone else comes along.

Sam Bronkowitz · Post by **Sam Bronkowitz** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 2:49 am

It seems that I don't have permission to access the contents of those documents, and Windows 2000 doesn't seem to let me change or remove them fully.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 7:47 am

Sam Bronkowitz wrote:It seems that I don't have permission to access the contents of those documents, and Windows 2000 doesn't seem to let me change or remove them fully.

yup, you made your folders and files private.

I doubt that I'll be online much today. I'm pretty much useless again today.
I believe this is best left for Stonecat or someone else.

Someone should be along in a bit. This has to be done right.

see this MS Tech Net page (not exactly what we're talking here.)
"In Windows 2000, when a local user password was reset by an administrator, the administrator or third party could theoretically use the newly changed account to log on as the user and decrypt the encrypted files. In Windows XP, the changing of a local user password by an administrator, or through a method other than by the user, will block all access to previously encrypted files by the user.

In summary, the profile and keys of the user will be lost and will not be available to the account with the reset password. Windows XP gives the following warning when attempting to reset a user account password:

Warning Resetting this password might cause irreversible loss of information for this user account. For security reasons, Windows protects certain information by making it impossible to access if the user's password is reset."

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:51 am

Boot from a knoppix live cd (google) and you can view the files....if you have two drives, you can burn cds/dvds using K3B using the second drive.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:53 pm

You have to take ownership of the folder in order to read the files in it.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

What kind of video card is in the box that won't boot?

Sam Bronkowitz · Post by **Sam Bronkowitz** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:19 am

Thanks for the suggestion Sid, but I can't log into the machine since Windows won't even boot. The vid card is probably an old GF3, but I'm not positive.

Amro, I'll probably try out Knoppix tomorrow, as that looks like it may do the trick, or at least enough for me to grab my files.

Thanks again ghettoside too.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 2:01 am

Sam Bronkowitz wrote:Thanks for the suggestion Sid, but I can't log into the machine since Windows won't even boot. The vid card is probably an old GF3, but I'm not positive.

Amro, I'll probably try out Knoppix tomorrow, as that looks like it may do the trick, or at least enough for me to grab my files.

Thanks again ghettoside too.

I'm assuming the drive is in another system. As the admin of the 2k box take ownership of the folder of the xp drive, you can then read them.

If the drive is still in the xp box then in recovery console try this command

disable nv

reboot the system and see if it will boot up. Sounds like the video driver is giving you problems. This will disable the nvidia drivers and set the standard vga drivers in it's place. You may also want to remove any hardware cards to the system to eliminate them as a problem.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:14 am

Sid wrote:I'm assuming the drive is in another system. As the admin of the 2k box take ownership of the folder of the xp drive, you can then read them.

If the drive is still in the xp box then in recovery console try this command

disable nv

reboot the system and see if it will boot up. Sounds like the video driver is giving you problems. This will disable the nvidia drivers and set the standard vga drivers in it's place. You may also want to remove any hardware cards to the system to eliminate them as a problem.

good ideas.

I'd try sid's first suggestion first, would be easiest.

if that doesn't work then use method 2. if disabling nvidia drivers doesn't help, then shut down and pull your other cards out and reboot. try safe mode then if normal boot up doesn't work. i've seen this problem with nvidia drivers before after an upgrade to SP2.

never been able to get the knoppix live cd to work, i always get driver errors as it boots, but then i've always tried it on older boxes too. it's worth a shot. I suggest using a download manager to grab the knoppix (if you haven't grabbed it already), or use firefox, ff won't time out. download from one of the master sites.

you could also use a bart pe boot cd to repair the sys or get in and take ownership of the files. (but you have to build the bart pe disc) link

let us know how it goes, there's a few ways to do this.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:48 am

Sid wrote:I'm assuming the drive is in another system. As the admin of the 2k box take ownership of the folder of the xp drive, you can then read them.

That's what I've always done. Slave the drive in another NT based system, browse it...go to the users profile directory inside of the C:\Documents and Settings....and snag the Documents folder, and whatever else you might need in there like desktop, favorites, and Outlook(pst) or Outlook Express files (dbx).

Any permissions errors...."take ownership". You'll get 'em.

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:23 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:That's what I've always done. Slave the drive in another NT based system, browse it...go to the users profile directory inside of the C:\Documents and Settings....and snag the Documents folder, and whatever else you might need in there like desktop, favorites, and Outlook(pst) or Outlook Express files (dbx).

Any permissions errors...."take ownership". You'll get 'em.

Besides that, getting the original box to boot back up wouldn't be that big of a deal. I would rather spend an hour working on getting it to boot up then reinstalling XP and all the drivers and software.

This could also be a corrupted drive.... Run "chkdsk /r" from recovery console as well.

Sam Bronkowitz · Post by **Sam Bronkowitz** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:52 pm

I tried Sid's NVidia suggestion, but nothing seems to have changed. The hard drives still click off as soon as the login screen would normally be displayed. chkdsk /r was also my first thought, and although it claims to have detected and fixed an error, it didn't change the situation. There were no other cards into the machine to begin with either.

I'll try out Knoppix shortly, as the file is now downloaded onto this machine and I've got a FAT32 drive ready for those files.

As far as taking ownership, I can't seem to get that to work, even if I'm logged in as the admin. If I try to take ownership of a particular file, it works and then I'm allowed to access it. If I try to do the same with a folder, it shows up as being empty, despite Windows now reporting there are actually files in it under the folder's properties.

Thanks for the help everyone. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't quite tell how far I have to go.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:21 pm

what model/make computer?

I saw something on this problem occurring after sp2 upgrade but it's specific to a particular manufacturer.

Sam Bronkowitz · Post by **Sam Bronkowitz** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:28 pm

Custom machine, but it's been at least a couple of years, so I probably couldn't remember half the exact components I put into it.

ghettoside · Post by **ghettoside** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:51 pm

what i saw pertained to compaq. thought i'd check.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:49 am

Sid wrote:Besides that, getting the original box to boot back up wouldn't be that big of a deal. I would rather spend an hour working on getting it to boot up then reinstalling XP and all the drivers and software.

This could also be a corrupted drive.... Run "chkdsk /r" from recovery console as well.

True enough, I was basing my reply on his stating he wished to "backup" the existing data. A prudent thing to do if the data is important, before one begins messing around and risking hosing the drive to an unreadable state. Once important data is backed up, one can begin to attempt repair with some more breathing room. 5 minutes to backup data worth it IMO.

When taking ownership..make sure you check the box for "replace permissions on child objects..."....and sometimes uncheck "inherit".

Sid · Post by **Sid** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 9:33 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:True enough, I was basing my reply on his stating he wished to "backup" the existing data. A prudent thing to do if the data is important, before one begins messing around and risking hosing the drive to an unreadable state. Once important data is backed up, one can begin to attempt repair with some more breathing room. 5 minutes to backup data worth it IMO.

When taking ownership..make sure you check the box for "replace permissions on child objects..."....and sometimes uncheck "inherit".

I'm not throughly convinced this is a windows problem yet. Everytime I have had a hard drive just shut down it was because a bad PSU.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 11:02 am

hrm, if you're having issues with files being "sort-of" accessible, you may have a bad hard disk.