Windows 7: Taking Ownership of HD, will this affect its ability to boot?

Hello all,



I need to find out of the following is possible and if so, how?

I have two laptops. One of the laptops is locked / password protected and I need to extract some files from it. I realize that I can take out that hard drive and set it as a secondary drive on my laptop (it has 2 HD bays) and take ownership of the second drive, pull off the files... but then Id need to reinsert that drive back into its laptop and have it still be boot-able without any issues.

Will my taking admin / ownership of this drive cause it to prevent it from booting anymore?

Thanks!

If it's your laptop you would know the password and have access to the files you think you need

All these techs and no one has an answer? Im sure someone out there has some idea of whether or not this will corrupt the HD and prevent it from booting anymore.

Please help!

Like 1Bowtie said, if its your laptop you should know the password. Nobody is replying because what you are talking about is likely against forum rules.

My wife passed away very recently, she has pictures of our recent vacations on her work laptop, as well as pictures of our children. There are also a few financial documents which I need before returning her laptop to her employer. I asked them for the password and they said they dont know it, as the employees choose the password and are required to change it every 30 days for security purposes. I need to return the laptop to them but would like to get our files off of it before I do so. However, I dont want to corrupt the entire thing, in case they need to get files off of it as well, I guess in the end, it doesnt matter though its not like they can fire her for having me return a useless laptop right?

I was simply looking for a yes / no answer. I wasnt really asking how to do it, rather I wanted to know if I did take ownership, would this affect their HD?

I should add that people do forget their passwords as well, it does happen, but it is not the case this time. I want our pictures / documents before I return their laptop and other stuff. If its against forum rules, I was just asking for a simple yes / no answer. Thanks for being considerate.

If it helps to private message me the information "yes it will" or "no it wont, its ok" and then just delete my thread. Thanks.

Yes if you do this it will affect the Laptop I would not do it. Plus this is not your system.

The reason you may have had some resistance in getting help, is because we do not help people breaking into computers. Why you need to is understandable however many times this is just a story to get us to help and that is illegal. That being said we all still like to help.

So......

On a side note I work for companies that lend out laptops to employees and things like this happen all the time. All you need to do is take the laptop to the company. Ask to have someone from IT support look at the laptop and recover the data for you. The IT staff will have the ability to get the data. Very simple, we do it all the time for many reasons. Since your wife has passed I am sure they will help you fast and discretely. -WS

Some time ppl do forget passwords or even buy a machine with a password on so your locked out .

This i know as i have done it but you could also be breaking in to a system thats not yours either way its an easy fix as passwords are no problem if you use your brain and your best friend google



i always have a disk with ????????? password removal tool on just incase i or my kids get locked out

but bare in mind these so called tools will erase all passwords

Thanks for the help guys. Ill contact their IT dept and hope they will help me get these files discretely. Its a tad embarrassing as some are "romantic" pictures we took on vacation but so be it. I hope they will respectfully just transfer all the files over without looking through them and causing further pain to our family.

@ Martin: I appreciate the help as well, I didnt want to go that route, I figured if I just took the files I needed, deleted them (the personal ones) and then swapped the HD back into her laptop and handed it in, there wouldnt be a problem and no one would know. The whole password thing makes me uncomfortable, as then I feel I'd really be breaking into that machine and prefer to just risk IT guys looking at it.

Best of luck to everyone. Thanks!

Due to this type of data retrieval I would ask to speak to the IT manager. Explain the type of data and he/she will acquire the data with you in a private area or have a respected staff member transfer the data with you in a private area. We have done this too so I completely understand. -WS