getting past winxp security policy?

[hotpotato71]

advanced happy (lunar) new year, everyone!

sorry about this if it sounds like i'm just rephrasing my earlier thread on recovering files/folders from the desktop of a corrupted winxp pro install. i've tried the suggestions you gave me, but nothing worked. i cannot boot to my colleague's account using his hard drive because i'll only be looped back to the boot menu - any choice i make gets me back to the boot menu. i'll just ask for your opinions on some suggestions we came across during the last few weeks.

when my colleague and i asked people from our it department, they said it boiled down to xp's security policy - unless you booted into your account, you cannot access the desktop. i've been tempted to reinstall winxp but that would just destroy all the data we're trying to recover. the data happens to be six months' worth of photo files of our boss. some have suggested nortonworks, but can nortonworks unlock the data from the desktop folder if you're not logged into the account where the affected desktop belongs?

another said i should connect the affected drive as a slave to a pc running linux. problem is, there's no one running linux in our building. not even the it department. would you know of someone who managed to recover desktop data in this way?

[CeeBee]

Try either attaching the drive to another computer or booting with Bart's PE disk.
Unless he was using Encrypted File System (EFS) you should have no problem accessing the files in either way. To bypass the security permissions you can take ownership of the files when having local admin rights.

[hotpotato71]

hi CeeBee. thanks for the suggestion. i spent the last two days burning a bartPE disk. unfortunately, no luck. it booted all right, but could not see the contents of the desktop folder.

i downloaded and tried a shareware program called recovermyfiles. it located the missing jpeg files in the desktop folder, but marked some of the files as 'unrecoverable' and 'corrupted.' i get the impression that the files were already deleted, which could be why bartPE could no longer see them. but as shareware programs go, you can see the files but you'll have to pay $29 to get the recover function going.

just as i was about to try norton systemworks today, guess what. the cd-rom drive gave out.

still, thanks for the suggestion. i'll appreciate additional suggestions, especially on what software to use to recover the &%^# files.

[MobilePCPhysician]

hi CeeBee. thanks for the suggestion. i spent the last two days burning a bartPE disk. unfortunately, no luck. it booted all right, but could not see the contents of the desktop folder.

i downloaded and tried a shareware program called recovermyfiles. it located the missing jpeg files in the desktop folder, but marked some of the files as 'unrecoverable' and 'corrupted.' i get the impression that the files were already deleted, which could be why bartPE could no longer see them. but as shareware programs go, you can see the files but you'll have to pay $29 to get the recover function going.

just as i was about to try norton systemworks today, guess what. the cd-rom drive gave out. [img]images/smilies/frown.gif[/img]

still, thanks for the suggestion. i'll appreciate additional suggestions, especially on what software to use to recover the &%^# files.

Use Knoppix. It's a flavor of Linux. Runs from CD. Will allow you to see, copy files to another drive, external cd or burner.

http://www.knoppix.org/ Download and burn an iso. Read the directions.

Good luck.

[hotpotato71]

hi mobilePCphysician! thanks for the suggestion. i'll try it this weekend, though i'll have to fix the pc's cd-rom drive first. will let you know if it works. really appreciate the suggestion

[hotpotato71]

hope this becomes useful for pc users who get into the situation i'm in. and i hope i'm making sense; haven't slept the past 2 days looking for alternatives, especially since i still don't have a working cd-rom...

you might want to download freeware called 'pc inspector file recovery,' it was partially successful in recovering the lost photo files. but some of the photo files couldn't be recovered anymore. the program crashed when it ran into 'access violations.' i would assume these are bad sectors? it is unlikely that they are encrypted because the entire desktop folder had been encrypted in the first place, right?

i'll still try out the cd approach once i get a working cd-rom drive. thanks for your inputs, everyone!

[collar]

Hi,

I suppose using Uneraser data recovery tool. It works from DOS, it's restore algorithm is awesome indeed, and it never ever failed me before, restoring literally all of the lost info. You should definately try it out.

http://www.uneraser.com/