PC Geek Assistance Required

14 Mar 2011

I know there's a fair few PC geeks out there who might be able to help me out with a little problem.
I had a laptop fail on me a few years ago with the motherboard overheating to the point it shuts down within seconds and it also managed to burn out the power supply at the same time.
What i could do with doing is getting any data off the HDD as some of it might be important but i can't remember what was added after the last backup. Obviously i can't do this with a dead laptop.
I've installed the drive in a tower unit and got it mounted ok, but it won't allow me access to the 'profile' created on the laptop.
Both machines are using XP so i was wondering if its possible to access it in any way. i've considered making a new profile on the tower with the same name and copying the whole profile into that- my main question being how will the password i had on the old profile work with a new profile? do i set up the new profile with the old password, do i not setup a password at all, do i need to tweak the registry in any way, will it even work?

HELP!!!!

14 Mar 2011

Weve been here ourselves mate. It was beyond my knowledge , Xp profiles seem impregnable even via the registry unless you have specialist equipment and software. We ended up having to find an understanding HDD transfer fella who did it professionally . Sorry hope i am wrong and there's a bright spark here who can help.

14 Mar 2011

I'm sure I've done something similar in the past, but with a USB drive housing. IIRC the old drive was from an XP machine, but the one I was using to read it was Vista. When I tried to access the drive it said I needed to "take ownership" (or something similar). I did that and it let me read all the files on the drive.
Hope that helps. :thumbup:

14 Mar 2011

go to folder right click > properties > security > take onwership
smile

14 Mar 2011

Quote by MattnLou
go to folder right click > properties > security > take onwership

No option for that, just get the general/sharing/customize tabs
Under sharing, there is text saying drag it to the shared docs folder but it won't let me do it- currently deleting crap off the OS drive to make sure i have space

14 Mar 2011

Try this... ...I'll go and look for a better example but either this or a cd bootable version of linux should allow you access to your files and allow you to copy them to somewhere else...I'm no expert but I have done a similar thing myself
Lifehacker to the rescue

14 Mar 2011

Quote by meat2pleaseu
go to folder right click > properties > security > take onwership

No option for that, just get the general/sharing/customize tabs
Under sharing, there is text saying drag it to the shared docs folder but it won't let me do it- currently deleting crap off the OS drive to make sure i have space
IIRC you disable simple file sharing in XP you should then be able to access security > take ownership.

&

Hope that is of some help?

14 Mar 2011

Quote by samson63
go to folder right click > properties > security > take onwership

No option for that, just get the general/sharing/customize tabs
Under sharing, there is text saying drag it to the shared docs folder but it won't let me do it- currently deleting crap off the OS drive to make sure i have space
IIRC you disable simple file sharing in XP you should then be able to access security > take ownership.

&

Hope that is of some help?
worship

job done, many thanks!
i did come up with a possible alternative while waiting for the kettle to boil, forcing the bios to boot off the off laptop drive- rewrite whatever system files it needed to and hopefully boot into the laptop OS so i could get at the profile and transfer anything i needed to a pen drive.
anyway, after all that there's pretty much nothing on the drive but at least i know i'm not losing anything :thumbup:

15 Mar 2011

Coulda just fixed the laptop got your stuff then sold it and probably been in profit too (from the repair) or is that just the ebayer in me thinking lol

15 Mar 2011

Quote by tweeky
Coulda just fixed the laptop got your stuff then sold it and probably been in profit too (from the repair) or is that just the ebayer in me thinking

the laptop is about 5 years old, so by the time i found a new motherboard, bought another power supply and spent time sorting it all out, it wouldn't be worth it. just going to sell it for spares instead

15 Mar 2011

Quote by meat2pleaseu
go to folder right click > properties > security > take onwership

No option for that, just get the general/sharing/customize tabs
Under sharing, there is text saying drag it to the shared docs folder but it won't let me do it- currently deleting crap off the OS drive to make sure i have space
IIRC you disable simple file sharing in XP you should then be able to access security > take ownership.

&

Hope that is of some help?
worship

job done, many thanks!
i did come up with a possible alternative while waiting for the kettle to boil, forcing the bios to boot off the off laptop drive- rewrite whatever system files it needed to and hopefully boot into the laptop OS so i could get at the profile and transfer anything i needed to a pen drive.
anyway, after all that there's pretty much nothing on the drive but at least i know i'm not losing anything :thumbup:
You are welcome, glad to help lol

Off topic, but a while ago you were looking for a program to record from radio broadcasts? I came across this one recently. It's great! and free! I've used it frequently to download lots of live stuff from Radio 6 broadcast in the wee small hours and listen to during the day in the car.

15 Mar 2011

Quote by samson63
Off topic, but a while ago you were looking for a program to record from radio broadcasts? I came across this one recently. It's great! and free! I've used it frequently to download lots of live stuff from Radio 6 broadcast in the wee small hours and listen to during the day in the car.

Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user- the PC's i have are all being disposed of.
I was using iplayergrabber but the beeb have managed to recode iplayer so it no longer works. I might have to keep the XBS Dell as most of the daytime shows are shite and i'm asleep when the good stuff is on (been listening to the Atlantic Records story this week- fantastic!)

15 Mar 2011

Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user!

Ah. Creative type eh? No wonder you had to come in 'ere requesting help from yer properly computer literate users? Bamboozled enough by the all yummy, shiny things your sort, eh Meaty.
:P
N x x x ;)

15 Mar 2011

Quote by neilinleeds
Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user!

Ah. Creative type eh? No wonder you had to come in 'ere requesting help from yer properly computer literate users? Bamboozled enough by the all yummy, shiny things your sort, eh Meaty.
:P
N x x x ;)
Thanks for the comment Nelly
I'd shoot you down in flames but i don't wish to dampen your excitement at having that new fangled electramacicity and 'pooter' magic oop in your northern hovel :rude:

15 Mar 2011

Quote by meat2pleaseu
Thanks for the comment Nelly.

You're welcome! smile

Quote by meat2pleaseu
I'd shoot you down in flames

'cept you're not sure if there's an app for that just yet? confused

Quote by meat2pleaseu
i don't wish to dampen your excitement at having that new fangled electramacicity and 'pooter' magic oop in your northern hovel :rude:

Oy! Dual cores these days sunshine. Dual cores! We've even got inside toilets and everything! mad

Gone are the days of us trying to make Win 7 look just like OS X? We've realised we can actually run OS X. In a window, in Linux, pretending to be a PC, what thinks it's a Mac?
Ha! Who's smug now? Eh? Who's chuffin' smug now with yer rarara 'Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user' rarara?
*wobbles head*
Read it and weep!
*breathes*
N x x x x ;)

15 Mar 2011

Quote by neilinleeds
i don't wish to dampen your excitement at having that new fangled electramacicity and 'pooter' magic oop in your northern hovel :rude:

Oy! Dual cores these days sunshine. Dual cores! We've even got inside toilets and everything! mad

Gone are the days of us trying to make Win 7 look just like OS X? We've realised we can actually run OS X. In a window, in Linux, pretending to be a PC, what thinks it's a Mac?
Ha! Who's smug now? Eh? Who's chuffin' smug now with yer 'Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user' :x
Read it and weep!
*breathes*
N x x x x ;)
Well, at least i don't smell of ferret flipa

15 Mar 2011

There is that I s'pose. :uhoh:
We're hoping we'll smell somewhat less ferrety the next time we avail ourselves of a social opportunity? They're somewhat less testically this morning.
surprised

uch:
If not, we'll pass the musky smell off as summat dead expensive? Apparently there's Londoners pay good money ferrit. dunno

Can't think why, cos they do smell really, really bad. lol

N x x x ;)

16 Mar 2011

Quote by neilinleeds
Oy! Dual cores these days sunshine. Dual cores! We've even got inside toilets and everything! Gone are the days of us trying to make Win 7 look just like OS X? We've realised we can actually run OS X. In a window, in Linux, pretending to be a PC, what thinks it's a Mac?
Ha! Who's smug now? Eh? Who's chuffin' smug now with yer rarara 'Bugger! its Windows only and i'm a Mackbook user' rarara?
*wobbles head*
Read it and weep!
*breathes*
N x x x x ;)

Dual cores with triple boot here :P
A Dell runnong Mac OSX, Win 7 and Ubuntu design studio