How to get at 'My Documents' From an old hibernated hard drive

[engine]

My laptop died and the backups will see me good for the data.

However, there is a perfectly good hard disk in the laptop with o/s, data, and programs on it.

I connected the hd to a multi-port drive device for such emergencies, and then plugged that into the usb port of a working PC.

I can get at most of the files with no problem, however, access is denied to My Documents. I think I know why this might be the case: Before the laptop died I used the hibernate option (obviously, if I knew it was going to die I would not have done that). I'm guessing that the files are locked, somehow.

I don't have a second laptop to try swapping the drives. Any idea

It's a Win XP o/s on the drive. How I un-hibernate the drive, bearing in mind that the laptop is completely dead?

[Realbrisk]

Dont know if it will help but the hibernate snapshot is stored in hiberfil.sys,you will need to set to show systems files

Doubt it will help since hibernation is an os thing not an HD issue

Sound more like an file permission issue is your current username the same as the laptop

Was your laptop password protected then the documents are encrypted

Solutions I would of tried

* plug it in different pc

* set bios to boot from Usb drive

* create a virtual machine of the drive (one free solution is Paragon Go Virtual) then you should get the Vmware player its free

[engine]

Thanks Realbrisk. I tried the first two solutions, will now try the third.

[creeking]

try a live linux CD in the working PC; use it to browse the usb drive.

[J_RaD]

yep, option 1 would be boot to ubuntu live CD and get your stuff off.

option 2 remove HD and put it into another machine to recover data. When i mean put it into another computer I don't mean via USB, you need to get it via its native IDE, or SATA interface. (requires a desktop)

[Philosopher]

The My Documents folder is usually locked because of Windows XP permissions.

To access it, you'll need to take ownership of the folder and all sub-folders and give yourself access to it. You do so via right-clicking on the folder and going to properties.

For a good description, just run a search on "take ownership of folder" along with your version of windows for a number of good walk-thru's.

[graeme_p]

I keep a Puppy Linux live USB stick (actually I have a multi-boot now, but that is more than you need for this) for just this sort of thing. I only used it once, and it turned out nothing was really wrong, but its nice to have.

Its not as good as proper rescue distro for this role, but its simple, easy to use, and can do just about anything you are likely to need, and its an acceptable emergency OS while you get something else fixed.

[kaled]

If all else fails, convert the partition to FAT32 - this will strip all permission data and should allow you to access all files. That said, I've never tried this. Copying the partition first may be advisable if there is sufficient disk space. (You'll need to resize one partition to create free space and then copy the required partition into the free space.)

I'm not sure if Windows will let you do this, if not, you'll need a partition manager - there are a few freebies out there.

Kaled.

[J_RaD]

^ it will require a special program to convert from NTFS to FAT32 and NOT lose all the data.

[Hoople]

I use Ubuntu Linux boot CD to delete files on Windows drives when the OS cops an attitude and blocks deletion.

IIRC most Linuxs now can read both FAT16/32 and NTFS.

[kaled]

it will require a special program to convert from NTFS to FAT32 and NOT lose all the data.

I'm surprised, but I think you could be right. I checked the partition manager I use and it's not offered.

Kaled.

[J_RaD]

I'm surprised, but I think you could be right.

HEY, whats that supposed to mean :-P

[kaled]

I'm surprised because I'm not aware of any reason why converting from NTFS to FAT32 should be tricky. It's not as if user access is implemented via encryption or something like that. It's simply a case of going from a moderately complex format to a simpler format whilst discarding some information. Provided there is sufficient working space on the partition, it should be fairly straightforward.

Kaled.

[J_RaD]

FAT32 to NTFS was always a 1 way street.

[kaled]

You say that with a knowing air, but why?

My guess is that FAT32 is considered to be redundant these days so no one can be bothered to write the necessary code. But if there's a sound technical reason, I'm all ears.

By way of an alternative, it should be straightforward to simply strip all the user-access/security data. I have to do this for a single file of one of my programs anyway.

Kaled.

[J_RaD]

hmmm let me get my books out, its much more then just stripping user access and security data though.

back to the topic, have you retrieved your data using one of above suggestions yet?

[engine]

I've failed, so far, to get the data as i'd like it.

I'm going to have a word with a friend that has some old laptops which may accomodate the HD and will try and boot from there. I'm sure, once the system is booted and saved without using the hibernate state, it'll be fine.

[enigma1]

there is an article that explains how to gain in general ownership of a file or folder, in case you haven't tried it:
[support.microsoft.com...]

It is also possible the data got corrupted for some reason.

[kaled]

I doubt hibernation is the issue - that's almost certainly a red herring.

Assuming that you are logged on as an administrator (and really have admin rights if running Vista or Win7) then it must be Windows on your computer simply being a pain. This means you'll need to boot something else that recognises NTFS (and isn't a pain).

The only other thing you could try is logging in to your computer as an administrator using the exact username and password that was used on the old computer - it might work.

Kaled.

[Digmen1]

Yes I had a similar problem once, and I had to play around with permissions etc.

Cant remember what I did though ! (sorry)

But I certainly would not try changing file systems (until I had tried every thing else)

Why do Microsoft make this area so tricky

[engine]

Currently, I have no way of booting from that HD. The original laptop died, so i'm left with a useable HD from the laptop but no obvious way to boot from it.

I'm sure if I can boot from it I can log in as usual (with Admin rights) and get it back to the unhibernated state. Clearly, the hibernation has locked some of the files and folders.

I'm hoping that my friend has an old laptop which might just take the HD (assuming compatibility).

[kaled]

Clearly, the hibernation has locked some of the files and folders.

At most, hibernation would affect only the master boot record. I have never studied exactly how hibernation works but either the MBR is replaced or a flag is set somewhere telling the MBR program it must unhibernate instead of booting normally. The chances of hibernation locking the MyDocuments folder are vanishingly small.

Kaled.