I can't get data from my old HDD

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My PC blew up, I now have a new PC with Vista installed. On my HDD, certain
files are encrypted and I can't move them onto my new PC - I have tried
everything that I can think of but the new PC does not recognise me as the
'owner' of the folders so will not let me move them! I can move all
non-encrypted files though - help!!!
 
Familydavis said:
My PC blew up, I now have a new PC with Vista installed. On my HDD,
certain
files are encrypted and I can't move them onto my new PC - I have tried
everything that I can think of but the new PC does not recognise me as the
'owner' of the folders so will not let me move them! I can move all
non-encrypted files though - help!!!
Click to expand...


The encryption wouldn't do much good if you could get the data, would it?

When you encrypted the original files, did you make an emergency recovery
disk with your key? If the encryption is any good, without that key, you
will never get your files back.
 
I cannot take ownership of the files, Vista says that access is denied. I've
tried opening the files in the hope that I could save as something else but
access is denied.
 
Familydavis said:
I cannot take ownership of the files, Vista says that access is denied. I've
tried opening the files in the hope that I could save as something else but
access is denied.
Click to expand...

Check the permissions of the file or folder the file is saved in and
take ownership:

1. Right-click the file or folder, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab.
3. Under Group or user names, click your name to see the permissions you
have.

To open a file, you need to have read permission. For more information
on permissions, see What are permissions?

http://tinyurl.com/2j9vgr

To take ownership of a folder:

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then
click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for
an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
confirmation.
4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in
this folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check
box.
6. Click OK


Malke
 
Thanks for the advice, tried it all but no luck! Have now lost Video's of my
kids, all of my music and all of My Documents.
I even tried plugging my HDD into another machine and tried to boot that but
it wouldn't even go into safe mode.
 
Familydavis, give us some more information to work with. It
appears that if you want to be able to recover those files
you will have to get your old PC running.

You said it "blew up". Exactly what happened with it? Also,
what OS was in use on your old PC? What program or method
was used for the encryption? In regards to the hard drive
containing these files, was it the same drive as your
operating system or was it a separate drive?

Hobo
 
What you need to do in that case is to plug your trouble Hard Drive as a Slave into another computer. Plugging it in as a slave in addition to the installed Hard Drive , you should be able to get to your files.
 
What you need to do in that case is to plug your trouble Hard Drive as a Slave into another computer. Plugging it in as a slave in addition to the installed Hard Drive , you should be able to get to your files.
Click to expand...

I think you've missed the point from the original post that the OP is
referring to encrypted files. If these files were encrypted with EFS and
the original encryption keys are lost with no archive or backup of the keys
and no data recovery agent then the files are gone. None of the advice in
this thread about taking ownership or moving the drive to another system
are going to be of any help at all.
 
No I did not miss that. All I told the OP is that to get those files to show on his HD after he messed up with
putting that HD into another computer as the main is to install it as a slave so he can access those encrypted files again on his HD.
 
No I did not miss that. All I told the OP is that to get those files to show on his HD after he messed up with
putting that HD into another computer as the main is to install it as a slave so he can access those encrypted files again on his HD.
Click to expand...

Then you apparently don't know much about EFS. As I said, if as the OP
states, those files are really encrypted and the encryption certificates
and keys are gone, you're suggestion will have absolutely no impact on his
inablilty to access those files. Those files are gone, period.
 
You have to take ownership of those files


As Seth pointed out, even if you take ownership, you still cannot decrypt
the files without either the original certificate or a valid recovery agent.

If the original poster hasn't backed up his/her certificates or doesn't have
a valid recovery agent, the only possible way to recover the files is to
somehow use the original operating system partition on the disk from the old
machine to boot Windows and then do what is needed to be able to access the
files on the new machine.

Being able to access the files on the new system isn't helpful if the files
remain encrypted.

-Pete
 
I am kind of having the same problem but I want to take ownership of the
DRIVE that was in my old system that was running XP and now i have it on my
Vista box. I can not even get a doc file to open after i give myself the
ownership it says denied. So i am thinking ,,,can I take ownership of the
whole drive and how.
Thanks so much
 
Right click on the root of the drive in Computer, select Properties, then
Security tab, and give your user account full control.
 
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