Question Access passworded files from old OS drive

[seth6string]

Here's my situation: I have the drive from my old desktop running WinXP, with a password. It's in an external enclosure, with a USB connection. I'm going to borrow a laptop running Win7 and connect my drive... am I likely to encounter any difficulty accessing my files? Will XP boot from the external, or will the laptop treat it as just a drive -- and in that case will I simply be prompted for my XP user password to view my old files? Thanks!

 

[hedwar2011]

When you say it is with a password, are you referring to the user account on Windows XP has a password or the files themselves are password protected?

Two things to consider here:
1) If the files/folders are password protected, you will have to have the password used to protect them or they may not even show up.
2) If the files/folders were encrypted, which could also be the "password", in this case, you will have to have the decryption key to unlock them but oftentimes they would have to be unlocked using the same device they were encrypted on.

 

[seth6string]

When you say it is with a password, are you referring to the user account on Windows XP has a password or the files themselves are password protected?

Two things to consider here:
1) If the files/folders are password protected, you will have to have the password used to protect them or they may not even show up.
2) If the files/folders were encrypted, which could also be the "password", in this case, you will have to have the decryption key to unlock them but oftentimes they would have to be unlocked using the same device they were encrypted on.

As far as I can remember (haven't booted that system in years) the files I want shouldn't be encrypted or passworded themselves. The user account was, though, and I remember the pass. It's my own music I recorded years ago, I just want to rescue them while I still can, then trash the drive.

 

[Misgar]

You won't be able to boot XP in a USB enclosure, but you should be able to access the files.

Since the name of the User account on the XP drive will not be the same as the User account on the new computer, you may see a message from Windows saying you don't currently have permissions to view the files on the XP drive. When asked if you want to view the files, just say Yes and you should then see the files.