Recover files ex-internal, soon to be external Windows 7 primary hard drive?

06
2014-04
  • Hendrik

    I have a broken Laptop with Windows 7 on it. The laptop needs a new motherboard and needs to be sent to the manufacturer for a while. Owner of the laptop needs her files while it will be gone.

    So I've decided to get one of those internal hard drive enclosures (Which allow you to turn your internal hard drive into a USB or eSATA external hard drive), take the internal HD out and stick in in the enclosure.

    My question is: will I be able to access all files on the hard drive no problem? Doesn't Windows 7 encrypt the user's folders? I'm not talking about any bitlocker encryption or bios HDD password, I know none of that is used on the laptop. Its a normal laptop with standard windows 7 home configuration.

    Thanks

    • Answers
  • Chakib

    Yes you can have access to all your files. If you still have issues accessing them use a linux live cd (like Ubuntu) to boot your system with your HDD and you will be able to access them !

  • tombull89

    If the user has a password on their Windows 7 login it will probably ask you for it when you try to go into the C:\Users[name] folder. You could do what Chakib suggested and use a Ubuntu Live CD/Live USB to ignore the permissions and copy the files.


    • Related Question

    Recover data from hard drive with partitions (but not most data) overwritten
  • Macha

    I have a 500GB hard drive I've been keeping around to recover data from that I removed from a failing NAS drive that got sort of... erratic at the end. I finally got rid of the NAS when during a firmware update it removed the partition table.

    Fast forward to a week ago, when I was building a new PC, and a mixup resulted in me placing the hard drive in question in the new PC and installing Windows XP on the first 100GB. I'm presuming any data on that first 100GB is now gone, but for the rest of it, is there any way I can recover it at home, as professional data recovery is currently too expensive?

    I have a blank 1TB HDD if I can store any images of that hard drive on. The problem was definitely with the NAS and not the hard drive, as the hard drive had a successful install of Windows when mistakenly place in the new PC, and there were capacitors in the NAS's circuitry clearly broken.

    The data I want to recover (in order of priority) is:

    • High: Some jpgs of family photos.
    • Medium: Some RAW files. (There are also jpg versions of all of these)
    • Low: Some mp3s, avis and ISOs, I can re-rip most of these if need be, but it'd be handy not to have to.

    (I don't need a backup lecture, and if you can hold it in from nagging Jeff Atwood for it, you can hold it in from nagging me for it)

    In short:

    • The partition tables are gone and overwritten.
    • The data is not overwritten, except for an amount equal to the size of a Windows XP SP3 installation.

    • Related Answers
  • Erik W

    You can use PhotoRec in this situation. It's a free application that scans your harddrive for file headers and tries to recover as many files possible. I've had luck restoring documents and photos from harddrives where the partition table got messed up and other file recovery apps failed.

  • Dentrasi

    A default Windows install shouldn't be more than about 10GB (even on Vista), so there's reasonable odds that some of your data is still there. The best software I've used for this kind of thing is Runtime's GetDataBack for NTFS. It has an option to recover files from sustained filesystem damage, such as reinstalling an OS on top.

    Put the drive into another machine, and run a scan with that, and see how much stuff it shows up. I think there are trials for GetDataBack, but the full version is only $80, which isn't an extortionate price for your data.

  • Georg Schölly

    i recommend WinHex, certainly one of the best program available in the realm of computer forensics (if not THE best). if it's just 'file recovery' you need, the 'lite' version, called Davory, will suffice, it is using the same technology. both programs are able to recover data from formatted drives, even if partially overwritten. the personal license for Davory costs €33 or $48.

    just make sure to select the physical disc and not any of the newly created partitions from the drive selection menu.

    Winhex saved my bacon countless times!

  • 8088

    The easiest thing would be to use a software tool to recover the files. I've used Active@ Partition Recovery and Restorer 2000.

    A nice thing about the data recovery tools like these is that you can try them to see what the software finds before buying them.

    If you absolutely know how the disk was previously partitioned, for example because you made a disk image of it a couple years ago, you may be able to use a Linux live CD to boot the system and then use fdisk to rewrite the partition table. With the parition table restored, other data recovery tools may work better.