Old laptop HDD, forgot password need data!

gradyhawks · 14 Feb 2016 at 13:40

Hi Chaps,

I've got an old laptop hard drive that I have taken out of the machine (totally bust) and I need to try and get the data off the thing ... but I can't just stick it in my desktop PC as I can't remember the password for the laptop...

Any ways to get the data off or change the password on the hard drive at all?

Cheers,

Grady

koolpc · 14 Feb 2016 at 13:52

Dont see why you need the password? Just take over ownership of it

http://www.techfleece.com/2011/05/1...-of-files-or-folders-or-an-entire-hard-drive/

ED209 · 14 Feb 2016 at 13:59

cant you just connect as a second HDD on the desktop PC and drag what you need from it?

koolpc · 14 Feb 2016 at 14:36

ED209 said:
cant you just connect as a second HDD on the desktop PC and drag what you need from it?

Sometimes you cannot do that if it has been pass worded. More often than not one has to take over ownership of the data first.

gradyhawks · 14 Feb 2016 at 14:37

Ah, just plugged it in and have access to it.. although going through it it seems like some items are missing such as anything on the HDD's desktop and the like... there might be some files that I needed in the old recycle bin is all.

Thanks though!

ED209 · 14 Feb 2016 at 15:00

you should be able to browse to the desktop, what OS was on it?

so for example (Windows 7\8\10)

c:\users\[windows username]\desktop

the above location should display the icons\files on that users desktop, don't think the recycle bin will be accessible

there is software though you can burn to disk that you can boot from which will allow you to change the user password