Need some help.....

[NeoRage]

I thought I would ask this here since this is really the only message board I ever post on....And I don't know anyone else to ask

I have an old hard drive that used to be the master drive for my computer. The hard drive was screwed up with registry mechanic and a "registry compression" "feature", Now it doesn't even boot to the windows XP screen but freezes when it's booting up. The problems I'm having are

1. The startup disc with my computer is an all in one disc without windows XP by itself and to top it off I don't have a windows XP disc that is verion 1 (which is needed for windows repair since I never upgraded )

2. I tried it as a slave external drive, But it gives me a message about not having the rights to the files. I tried to take ownership of the files but it didn't work.

If any of you know how to get the files off of the hard drive please let me know. The reason I need the files is that my grandma died yesterday and on the hard drive I have around 4,000 photographs and some of them are of her and I need them for the funeral which is Monday.

Thanks in advance

[racketboy]

So you're not trying to boot Windows off of that drive are you?
Just pulling the photos off?

[Mozgus]

Thats a strange feature. I never heard of such a thing. Have you tried throwing the drive into another system that is already working, and just accessing the drive that way?

[ImportBoy]

If you have another working PC, just add the messed up hard drive into it as a slave. The other operating system should then detect it and you can move your photos off.

Your other option would be to download and burn a bootable live CD. I suggest Knoppix. Boot your computer off it, and move your photos to somewhere else (online storage, memory key, etc).

[NeoRage]

Yes I am only trying to get the photos off of the drive, Not use it as a main drive. I have my computer (same computer) running with a new hard drive and the same version of windows.

Unfortunately that is my only computer and it is the one I tried the old drive as a slave on.

I have never heard of a bootable live disc before, What would it do?

Thanks for the help guys!

[lordofduct]

Let me guess. All your documents you want are in the "My Documents" folder or some other private folder on your XP install. Those folders are set to only allow access to the user account that created it... making an account on the new system with the same password and username doesn't work either as it is recorded differently in the registry which isn't tied to this new install... long story short hacking into it is really annoying.

If you have them in these secure private folders then you have two options:

boot a Linux live disc, load up NTFS read drivers, mount the drive and copy the files over to a FAT32 partition. Linux ignores the permissions as the NTFS read driver doesn't even know what it is. (you have to use a FAT32 partition as Windows recognizes them, and Linux can't write to a NTFS drive. Work is being done to get it to work, but at this point in time it is very buggy and I'd suggest not doing that. Read capabilities work just fine, ubuntu has it built in so just use an Ubuntu Live CD).

OR

There is a program that strips NTFS permissions off of directories allowing you access to it. I don't remember what it is called, I'll ask my buddy who has it what it is called again. But if you just mount it as a slave and use this program it will let you move the files and then you can just format the drive and put everything you backed up back on it.

[Mozgus]

Yes I am only trying to get the photos off of the drive, Not use it as a main drive. I have my computer (same computer) running with a new hard drive and the same version of windows.

Unfortunately that is my only computer and it is the one I tried the old drive as a slave on.

I have never heard of a bootable live disc before, What would it do?

Thanks for the help guys!

It's a CD where, upon booting with the CD in the drive, it loads a temporary OS without modifying anything on your hard drives, and continues to run off the CD until you power off. As long as it supports reading to your (I'm assuming) NTFS drive, you'll be able to copy the images off to another location.

[NeoRage]

Let me guess. All your documents you want are in the "My Documents" folder or some other private folder on your XP install. Those folders are set to only allow access to the user account that created it... making an account on the new system with the same password and username doesn't work either as it is recorded differently in the registry which isn't tied to this new install... long story short hacking into it is really annoying.

If you have them in these secure private folders then you have two options:

boot a Linux live disc, load up NTFS read drivers, mount the drive and copy the files over to a FAT32 partition. Linux ignores the permissions as the NTFS read driver doesn't even know what it is. (you have to use a FAT32 partition as Windows recognizes them, and Linux can't write to a NTFS drive. Work is being done to get it to work, but at this point in time it is very buggy and I'd suggest not doing that. Read capabilities work just fine, ubuntu has it built in so just use an Ubuntu Live CD).

OR

There is a program that strips NTFS permissions off of directories allowing you access to it. I don't remember what it is called, I'll ask my buddy who has it what it is called again. But if you just mount it as a slave and use this program it will let you move the files and then you can just format the drive and put everything you backed up back on it.

If you could find out what that program is called it would be a life saver! I would try the Linux live disc, But I know that I would screw something up more than it was

Thank you.

[NeoRage]

Yes I am only trying to get the photos off of the drive, Not use it as a main drive. I have my computer (same computer) running with a new hard drive and the same version of windows.

Unfortunately that is my only computer and it is the one I tried the old drive as a slave on.

I have never heard of a bootable live disc before, What would it do?

Thanks for the help guys!

It's a CD where, upon booting with the CD in the drive, it loads a temporary OS without modifying anything on your hard drives, and continues to run off the CD until you power off. As long as it supports reading to your (I'm assuming) NTFS drive, you'll be able to copy the images off to another location.

That program sounds great! Where would I find it at? Yes it's an NTFS drive, I really just want to take all of the pictures I had off of it.

[Mozgus]

Lord will know more, but you could just download Ubuntu Desktop 32bit 7.04 here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Servers are ganna be slow though, because 7.04 just launched today.