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Reading Administrator account files from USB

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PPLandry:
My notebook HD started to freak out 2 months ago and decided to change it before it was too late. I backup up stuff from my usual Windows account (not the Administrator account) to an external drive, swapped the old drive for a new one and reinstalled everything. It is working just fine now.

I also put the old HD into an enclosure as it is still functional. My question is:

- I had some file in the Administrator account. When I connect the USB drive, those file are not visible. In fact, the whole Documents and Settings\Administrator folder structure is read protected (Access is denied). How can I access those files, other than putting that HD back into the notebook? Can I be prompted to enter an account/password to access the files? Can I take ownership of those files?

Nothing that critical there, just some old files I had before creating my usual Windows account, mostly in very old backups I could dig up, but just to be sure that I have all backups, I'd like to actually see what was there...


Thanks

Ehtyar:
I've had to do a similar thing myself. Follow the instructions here to take ownership of the folder.

Ehtyar.

PPLandry:
Thanks!  :up: :up:

Shades:
If it is looking that you want, a method that will work is booting from a Linux Live CD (or their USB version). Linux does not know/care about Windows policies/ownership etc.

Likely you can even strip all that kind NTFS info from a file when storing it on a non-NTFS filesystem and copy the copy to your new system.

Ehtyar:
If it is looking that you want, a method that will work is booting from a Linux Live CD (or their USB version). Linux does not know/care about Windows policies/ownership etc.

Likely you can even strip all that kind NTFS info from a file when storing it on a non-NTFS filesystem and copy the copy to your new system.
-Shades (September 24, 2008, 07:34 PM)
--- End quote ---
Indeed this is a much better solution for covert forensics.

Ehtyar.

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