Access denied to HDD from windows XP computer

[wrigglesworth]

Hi all,

My Windows XP laptop died, so I have a new one running Windows 8. I need to get a load of stuff off the old HDD. I thought it would be pretty easy - just plug it into an external enclosure, plug it into the USB port of the new laptop, and off I go. However, I just get "access denied" messages, because I guess the folders are part of the my password-protected account on the old laptop.

So any ideas as to how I can get at my stuff?

(By the way, the fault with the old laptop is related to battery charging. There is still a little charge left in it, so I could boot it up and do things on the original laptop if that would help, until the charge finally runs out and it dies completely.)

 

[The Stealthinator]

I dunno what you mean by "died". If the battery ran out of your XP machine, just plug it into power and use it.

If your HD corrupted, you can't recover the files.

Unless you say more, I can't really help you.

 

[unksol]

If its battery charging related try another adapter or check for a fault in the cord by wiggling it.

you can take ownership of the folders via the security options but if they are actually password protected we can't help you, and if they are encrypted you will only be able to access them from the XP OS Anyway.

 

[wrigglesworth]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies, and sorry not to have been clearer. I have a pretty poor level of understanding of this, which I think is not helping my communication.

The XP laptop won't charge or run from the power supply because of a motherboard issue too complicated to go into, but I've investigated this at some length, and it is now dead except except for the charge still in battery. When that charge is used up it will be no more! I'm not too concerned about the loss of the computer - it was old and cranky anyway. I'm very concerned about the content of the HDD, and there is nothing wrong at all with that.

However, as described in my original post, when I plug that HDD into a Windows 8 machine although I can see the folder structure I get told that access is denied to most of the folders. I'm assuming that this is due to the fact that to get at those files I had to enter a password when Windows XP booted up (the password for my XP account on that computer) (and the system is a bit more secure than just to allow someone to access the drive externally and have a free run of all the files).

As far as I know nothing is encrypted (beyond anything XP would do by default). Unksol, you say

"you can take ownership of the folders via the security options but if they are actually password protected we can't help you"

Could you explain that a bit further? You mean doing this within Windows 8 with the drive mounted as an external hard drive? As I've said there is no password beyond the password to access the old XP account (and I know what that is).

Thanks a lot

Wrigglesworth

 

[The Stealthinator]

What that means is under windows 8, when you can see the folder structure of your files from your XP machine, right-click and select "Take Ownership". That might grant you access to the files, but you must know the admin account password on your win 8 machine.

 

[Scott_D_Bowen]

When you get the Access Denied message next can you type both the title and error message text, and the buttons available down and let us know what you're looking at exactly.

That or post a screenshot, if you know how.

 

[wrigglesworth]

Thanks very much for the further advice. When I plug the XP HDD into the USB port and navigate to one of the problematic folders I get a dialogue box saying:

"You don't currently have permission to access this folder. Click "continue" to permanently get access to this folder."

So I click "continue". Then another dialogue box pops up saying:

"You have been denied permission to access this folder. To gain access to this folder you will need to use the security tab."

OK. I find the security tab by right clicking the folder and going into the "properties" menu. This tells me:

"You must have read permissions to view the properties of the object. Click "Advanced" to continue."

I click "Advanced". In the advanced box, under the "permissions" tab, it says:

"You must have read permissions to view the properties of the object. Click "continue" to attempt the operation with administrative permissions"

I click "continue". It says:

"You do not have permission to view this object's security properties, even as an administrative user. To try taking ownership of the object, which includes permission to view its properties, click "Change" above."


I click "Change". Then I get a dialogue box labelled "select user or group" which I don't understand, and which does not seem to give me any useful options. Here's a screenshot of it:

I'm pretty lost by this, and I can't find anything useful by googling, although I would guess I can't be the only person who has tried getting stuff off an old XP drive into Windows 8. Any help would be very gratefully received.

 

[wrigglesworth]

Is it bad etiquette to bump?

 

[vn997]

any luck? i seem to have similar problem with a particular file that i transferred to win8 from XP.

 

[lahiru19]

hey. i'm facing the same problem here. i have a WD 2tb external hard disk which i used with my old windows XP laptop. Recently i purchased a laptop with windows 8 and plugged the hard disk. but i'm unable to gain access as an error message appears.
Title of the Message says "Location is not available".
Then the message is " G:\ is not accessible. Access is denied.
I have tried almost all the ways discussed in many forums, including taking ownership and setting up permissions with out a success.
Could any please help me with this issue since i have about 1.5tb data in this disk.
further more, when ever the hard disk is plugged in to windows XP it works fine!!

 

[wrigglesworth]

Hi, I'm the original poster - I've still not solved the problem.

I'm wondering if, as a workaround, I can plug my old XP hard drive (which has a full XP installation on it) into my Windows 8 laptop as an external drive via a USB enclosure, and then boot up from the old drive. I would then be running Windows XP, and I guess I'd be able to get at the files on the old disk, and perhaps copy them en masse to the hard drive built into the laptop (which I guess XP would see as an external drive?).

Any thought on this?

 

[Funmerchant]

From the Select a User or Group window, type "Everyone". Yes, this is generally bad for security, but I take it you'll ditch the old drive after recovering your data.

... for a list of available users, click the Advanced button, then on the new window click the Find Now button

 

[wrigglesworth]

From the Select a User or Group window, type "Everyone". Yes, this is generally bad for security, but I take it you'll ditch the old drive after recovering your data.

... for a list of available users, click the Advanced button, then on the new window click the Find Now button

Funmerchant - thanks very very much, this works! Sorry for the delayed reply, I'd given up checking the thread.

It works, for which I'm very grateful, but its kind of awkward in that I have to go through this longwinded process for every single file and folder. Is there any way of enabling access to "everyone" for a whole path (all folders and subfolders) in a single bulk operation?

 

[wrigglesworth]

OK, sorry I'm a doofus, there is a very obvious way to allow access for "everyone" to all subfolders.

Within one of the windows that pops up during the process headed "Advanced security settings", there is a tickbox which says "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". Make sure that this is ticked and it does what it says.

Thanks again Funmerchant for giving me access to my long lost stuff.

 

[wrigglesworth]

One final thought on this: in giving access to the old XP "My documents" folder to "everyone", at no point was I asked my XP password! This seems to make a mockery of the security anyway, it seems like anyone could do the same thing.