Hi all! Thanks so much in advance for any help anyone can offer. I have searched extensively on the internet as a whole, and within these forums for an answer but can’t seem to solve my problem. I consider myself relatively computer savvy so this is getting very frustrating. I’ll try to keep the description of the issue clear and concise.
I have a laptop running Vista Business that won’t complete it’s boot sequence.. I am planning on reformatting it after recovering the important files (My Documents, My Music, etc). I took out the HD from the “dead” laptop and put it in a USB enclosure and attached it to another laptop (this one: running Vista Home Prem). The computer recognizes the device and explores it without any problems. The folder with the important data I want to recover WOULD be in “Users” and then “Profile Name”. However, within the “Users” folder, ONLY a folder “Public” is seen, and the Video, Music, etc folders within that are not visible. I know they are there… the storage indicates all the data is present, I just can’t see it (90 of 110 GB are full).
I attempted to follow instructions (mostly pertaining to XP) to change ownership of, first: the drive itself (F:).. and also ownership of the “Users” folder. I gave myself “Full Control” etc and after doing all of these things, I still cannot SEE or access the Users subfolder that would contain all the pertinent data.
Some potentially important points to note:
*I have restarted the computer with the device attached after changing ownerships.. nothing.
*The connected HD from the ‘dead’ Vista laptop was not password protected.
I must not be taking ownership correctly. A few times as I went through the process, it flashed a bunch of “Access Denied” windows at me, with filepaths that are NOT visible within Explorer, but is what I want/need to access.
I have not been able to find any explicit directions pertaining to acquiring ownership of a folder in Vista, as are available if I was attempting to do so in XP. (Doh!)
If anyone has any ideas or step-by-step directions for correctly taking ownership of a folder in Vista to see and access these personal ‘folders’ within Vista I would be forever grateful.
Thanks again for all of your time and help
