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General discussion

Trouble gettin pics and movies off external hard drive.

by bwn_us Dec 29, 2007 8:06AM PST

I had a 5 year old computer crash back in febuarty. It ran windows xp professional. I bought a new computer with vista home. I had the old computers hard drive copied onto a wd ebook 300g. now I can't find pics and movies and other stuff i know should be on there. please help me.

Discussion is locked

13 Posts
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Did you Take Ownership?
by John.Wilkinson Dec 30, 2007 6:51AM PST

Browse to drive:\Documents and Settings\username and then take ownership of the file, being sure to check the box to take ownership of all subfolders and their contents. Without taking ownership files stored in the protected users folders won't appear and the folder size will appear 'off.'

Hope this helps,
John

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still no hope
by bwn_us Jan 1, 2008 5:13AM PST

i tried that but i don't have the option of take ownership. not even a securty tab. i have tried in safe mode and reg.

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This can be trouble. Why?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 1, 2008 6:06AM PST
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i am goin crazy!
by bwn_us Jan 1, 2008 8:38AM PST

i don't have the option of taking ownership in reg or safe mode. i found an elevated command prompt to take ownership but i am not good at all with command prompt (or windows apparently) the advise u give is the same as everyone else but for some reason i don't have the option of taking ownership. what would the commands be? my ebook is on drive j: i really appreciate your help.

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dos prompt says
by bwn_us Jan 1, 2008 9:07AM PST

"File ownership can not be applied on insecure file systems; there is no support for ACLs." I emailed the manufactor of the external hard drive(western digital) and told them they could either tell me how to get my kids pics off of this P.O.S. or refund my money. OOOHHHH, I wonder if they will take me seriously.

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Wait...is the hard drive NTFS or FAT formatted?
by John.Wilkinson Jan 1, 2008 9:18AM PST

Right-click the drive in (My) Computer, select Properties, and let us know. If it's FAT-formatted then taking ownership would not apply as the security features would not be supported. Thus, the problem would lie elsewhere.

John

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AHA!! It's not a NTFS formatted drive.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 1, 2008 9:20AM PST

We are now looking at data recovery and not a permissions issue.

First, make absolutely sure it doesn't work on another Windows XP SP2 machine.

Next go get these softwares (yes, some are demos.)

ZERO ASSUMPTION RECOVERY.
GETDATABACK.

Now test those and if they show your files then we only need to know if your files are worth it.

Bob

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they are worth everything to me
by bwn_us Jan 1, 2008 11:27AM PST

i know its corny but what i am after are pics of my son from the time he was born. thanks everyone i will try these

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Just what I use.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 2, 2008 12:56AM PST

I have my picture collections SYNC'D over a few machines with SYNCBACK (free and found with google) as well as on DVDRW disks and a copy with my family.

Bob

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that is what i'll try next.
by bwn_us Jan 2, 2008 7:47AM PST

those other two programs so far are just showing files on currently or previously on vista. i called the tech guy who did the transfer and he was a @sshole. said he did what i asked and if vista won't read xp it ain't his problem. won't be giving him any home or work business in the future. i still have the old hard drive i had copied what is involved in hooken it up or something.

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Next step up is...
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jan 2, 2008 8:14AM PST
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it hopeless
by bwn_us Jan 4, 2008 9:56AM PST

i appreciate all the help but i guess i am gonna have to give up and just try hooking the old hard drive up. vista just won't read the old files. thanks everyone.

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damn it
by bwn_us Jan 6, 2008 8:42AM PST
Back to Windows Vista forum

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