Data recovery locked user account

[soupordave]

I'm trying to save some data off an old XP NTFS drive. The user folder in Documents and Settings is locked when booting from another OS. The computer the drive came from is gone and none that I have access to will boot to it. I do have the user and admin passwords. Should I try a repair/reinstall of the OS with another machine?, or is there an easier way? Thanks!

 

[PhilFrisbie]

If you boot from an XP machine you should have access to the entire drive. I have noticed that Windows 7 tries to lock you out of a foreign drive, which is a silly sort of security!

 

[soupordave]

I booted from another XP machine. I even made and booted to a user account with the same name and password as the old drive. I can access everything but the user account that I need to get to in Documents and Settings. It says access is denied when I try to open the user folder that contains the files I need.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

Strange, I have doen this many times before with no problems. Is the other XP machine XP Pro, or Home?

 

[soupordave]

All are XP Pro. I tried on 2 computers. I don't want to reinstall because the old computer was a P4 with Intel chipset box and the stuff I have access to now is AMD. I've had poor luck trying stuff like that in the past. I seem to be out of other options.

 

[PhilFrisbie]

You can boot up with a live Linux CD and copy the files.

 

[soupordave]

I thought about that then forgot. Thanks for the reminder!!!

 

[PhilFrisbie]

No problem.

 

[soupordave]

No problem.

Thanks phil. I finally got time to deal with this again and Linux saved the day...ta. God bless you

 

[soupordave]

Best answer selected by soupordave.