I purchased a new computer after my old one "crashed and burned". I removed the hard drive from the old one and installed it in the new one in an effort to salvage whatever files I could. I'm running Windows XP on the new and that's what I had on the old as well. All of the files for my kids, I was able to move to the new one. All of mine are gone. Because my work was password protected, it will not allow me to access anything. I get an "access denied" error message. When I "click" on the folder in documents and settings, it says the folder is empty. Is there anyway I can bypass this to view my files and move what I need, or are they lost to me forever? I've tried to research software claiming to allow you to recover anything, but nothing that seems to address this particular problem. Can anyone help with this?

Okay, back up a bit... Your work was password protected, so do you not have the passwords?

I apologize for not making this more clear. Of course I have the password. That's the reason that I put Hard Drive / Motherboard. It was suggested to me that because I had password protected all of my files that the password(s) were linked to the motherboard and that it might not have been the hard drive at all, but the motherboard that "fried". That was what I needed to know. If the motherboard and not the hard drive was what caused the failure, do I have any hope of getting my data back? And, if so, how? If not, then I guess I'll just have to live with it. I will appreciate any help that can be given.

I found a possible solution mentioned on another forum - these are the links it recommended:


How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

Methods for Recovering Encrypted Data Files

I hope it works! :)

Thank you for trying to help me. It didn't work. I guess I'll have to take it somewhere and have a professional try to recover the files for me. Mostly, it's the photos that I wanted to recover. I've tried everything that everyone I've told this problem to has suggested, but all suggested remedies were to no avail. Thanks again!