Question Easiest way to read the OS drive outside of the host PC?

[punkncat]

Is there a method that helps avoid the access restrictions issue?

Friend's HP PC crapped out. She has a paid photo session in the photos and documents folders on that drive that she was editing. PC is toast, not worth fixing but would like to know an easy method to gain access to the drive when in an external caddy and connected to her laptop. We have the sign in/password info for the old system if that makes any difference.

I have found this to be very hit and miss in the past and this individual is about 3 hours away. We are trying to avoid data recovery, if possible.

 

[USAFRet]

Is there a method that helps avoid the access restrictions issue?

Friend's HP PC crapped out. She has a paid photo session in the photos and documents folders on that drive that she was editing. PC is toast, not worth fixing but would like to know an easy method to gain access to the drive when in an external caddy and connected to her laptop. We have the sign in/password info for the old system if that makes any difference.

I have found this to be very hit and miss in the past and this individual is about 3 hours away. We are trying to avoid data recovery, if possible.

The drive and contents should be 'readable'.
Don't try to boot from that drive.

The data in the Windows Libraries is restricted by NTFS permissions.
TakeOwnership removes that.

 

[punkncat]

Thank you for the suggestion. Will for sure just plug the caddy into the laptop after it is powered up and running. My own personal experience has been that in some cases it just works, and others it just doesn't.

The drive caddy won't be there till Tuesday next week, I just wanted to have my ducks in a row for it since I cannot be there.

 

[USAFRet]

Thank you for the suggestion. Will for sure just plug the caddy into the laptop after it is powered up and running. My own personal experience has been that in some cases it just works, and others it just doesn't.

The drive caddy won't be there till Tuesday next week, I just wanted to have my ducks in a row for it since I cannot be there.

The only stuff on that drive that matters is personal data.
Everything else, OS and applications, can be reinstalled in some new system.

 

[punkncat]

The only stuff on that drive that matters is personal data.
Everything else, OS and applications, can be reinstalled in some new system.

Yeah, no worries about the programs and such. She is a professional photog and had gotten this HP some years back with an R3 1200 in it. We cobbled a 1600 into it, I put in an SSD for OS and we kept the HDD for use as storage alongside an external drive that she uses for now. She works the edits on the SSD side for the added speed and then moves the stuff to the HDD and external. It is a situation we have been talking about remedying for about a year. They are having their home built and are staying in a really little place so not much room for what we intend to do for her as far as both a studio and a robust storage solution with redundancy.

There are quite a few things that I know how to do in person but for me to tell someone else how I don't even know what the process or name of and so forth. I wanted to be sure I wasn't asking her to check out the thingamajig in the do-lolly, you know?

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah, no worries about the programs and such. She is a professional photog and had gotten this HP some years back with an R3 1200 in it. We cobbled a 1600 into it, I put in an SSD for OS and we kept the HDD for use as storage alongside an external drive that she uses for now. She works the edits on the SSD side for the added speed and then moves the stuff to the HDD and external. It is a situation we have been talking about remedying for about a year. They are having their home built and are staying in a really little place so not much room for what we intend to do for her as far as both a studio and a robust storage solution with redundancy.

There are quite a few things that I know how to do in person but for me to tell someone else how I don't even know what the process or name of and so forth. I wanted to be sure I wasn't asking her to check out the thingamajig in the do-lolly, you know?

Yes, this is a good time to nudge her into a real backup solution.

Personal data, especially "professional photog" data, should never be at the mercy of a single device. PC, laptop, or drive.

 

[punkncat]

Agreed. That will be a hurdle to approach as the house starts getting near finished. Right now her "office desk" is basically sitting on the glass/screened in front porch since it was the only place to put it where they are staying temporarily.

I will most certainly be asking some advice towards a robust and reliable solution as that comes closer. Various issues have the house not projected to be finished until early next year.

 

[USAFRet]

Agreed. That will be a hurdle to approach as the house starts getting near finished. Right now her "office desk" is basically sitting on the glass/screened in front porch since it was the only place to put it where they are staying temporarily.

I will most certainly be asking some advice towards a robust and reliable solution as that comes closer. Various issues have the house not projected to be finished until early next year.

To start, OneDrive or DropBox.

Further....

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

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