Need help in backing up data

[DPtheGod]

Hey guys! Long time no see!

Hey, I am trying to help my sister-in-law's daughter (whatever she would be to me) get her laptop straightened out. The computer can access Windows, but as soon as the desktop is up, the computer locks up and Windows basically crashes. Her account is password protected, so when I hooked her hard drive up to my computer, Vista had asked me to take ownership to access the files. So, I did, but it still not grant me access to the specific files. But, when I put the hard drive into her laptop and try to access the files in Safe Mode via th Administration account, it says her specific account is locked.

It tells me that access is denied, and that I cannot open that folder. I have a feeling I probably messed the computer up, but I know I can at least reformat it. She has already accepted that she might have to lose everything as a last resort, so I'm not really too worried. She does have some pictures in her account's "My Documents" and "Desktop" folders, which is what I need to retrieve.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm kind of stuck now.

 

[Russel1]

You may be able to access the files by booting off of a Linux live disc such as Ubuntu or Konnopix and copying the files to another drive.

 

[DPtheGod]

Would I be able to plug in my external hard drive to her laptop, and boot Ubuntu from her laptop and copy the files that way? Or would I have to use her drive as a secondary on my computer?

 

[Russel1]

Would I be able to plug in my external hard drive to her laptop, and boot Ubuntu from her laptop and copy the files that way? Or would I have to use her drive as a secondary on my computer?

You should be able to boot from the notebook with an external drive and copy the files over. This is the method that I've used in a similar situation. I can't hurt to try. I think you have to mount the external drive so that you can write to it, but other than that it pretty much boot and go.

 

[DPtheGod]

I will definitely give it a shot. Thanks for the info! Also, I've never mounted an external drive before, embarassingly enough. How would I go about mounting it? Or is it something simple inside of Ubuntu?

 

[Russel1]

I will definitely give it a shot. Thanks for the info! Also, I've never mounted an external drive before, embarassingly enough. How would I go about mounting it? Or is it something simple inside of Ubuntu?

It's a Ubuntu/Linux thing to mount the drive so that it's not read only. If you connect the external drive to the laptop before booting Linux, then Linux should set it up read only, if I'm not mistaken. Then, I think, you have to mount it as a read-write disk. It shouldn't be difficult. Check the help in Ubuntu. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Celegorm]

Did you edit the permissions too, or just the ownership? most of the time I do that, I need to edit permissions as well as take ownership.

 

[danny_2132]

have you tired locating the problem with why the laptop crashes?

i done this on my laptop hd once and it worked.

connect the laptop hd to you pc using an external casing. then run a diskcheck on the laptop hd ... that should fix like a few corupted files... if it doesnt work booting with a linux disc should work...