Data Salvage protected folder HELP!

I had a laptop that died... HDD is still good an i purchased a external USB
setup to allow me to acceess and copy all of my pertinent data to my new
system...

HOWEVER i can get on the drive but my USER documents are secured and i dont
know how to get around the password protection...? I still know the old
password but i dont know how to get a prompt to enter it for access...

The systems are entirely differnent so booting to the USB drive is out...
already tried... to many driver errors...

is there a back door or maybe a way to fool it into thinking i am logged in???

HELP PLEASE
THANKS IN ADVANCE...!
Eric

Data Boy Eric wrote:

> I had a laptop that died... HDD is still good an i purchased a
> external USB setup to allow me to acceess and copy all of my pertinent
> data to my new system...
>
> HOWEVER i can get on the drive but my USER documents are secured and i
> dont
> know how to get around the password protection...? I still know the
> old password but i dont know how to get a prompt to enter it for
> access...
>
> The systems are entirely differnent so booting to the USB drive is
> out... already tried... to many driver errors...
>
> is there a back door or maybe a way to fool it into thinking i am
> logged in???

I don't know what you mean by "secured" and I hope you don't mean that
you encrypted the files. If you just made them private, try taking
ownership of the files:

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

If that doesn't work (and I'm hoping it does), then as long as you
didn't encrypt the files you can get the data from either Knoppix or a
Bart's PE. Here is a link to Bart's and information about using
Knoppix:

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

An easy way to retrieve Windows files is to boot with Knoppix, a Linux
distro on a live cd. You will need a computer with two cd drives, one
of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to
hold your data. To get Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast
Internet connection and third-party burning software. Download the
Knoppix .iso from www.knoppix.net and create your bootable cd. Then
boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are
using the usb thumb drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to
get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then
click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead
of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b
burning program to burn the files to cd/dvd-r's.

If you encrypted the files with XP's EFS and didn't back up your keys...
well, here are a few links about EFS and let's hope you didn't do that.

http://tinyurl.com/6l6xx - MS information about EFS (Encryption)
http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html - Encrypted files retrieval
application
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm - encryption info
http://www.beginningtoseethelight.org/efsrecovery/ - more encryption
info

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"