Yes, I seem to only come out of the woodwork when I need help (but that's because you have always been so helpful! ), but here goes:
My wife's laptop suddenly died last week (motherboard failure). I'm trying to transfer her files from the old HD to her new laptop (an Acer w/ Windows 7) using this cable, but it won't let me.
The old HD (w/ Windows XP) still works and I can see it on the new computer (and on my desktop at home and at work), in fact, I can go so far as to find the files she wants, 'copy' (or 'cut') them, navigate back to the new computer and 'paste' before getting an 'access denied' message.
I tried booting from the old HD (via the USB cable) but couldn't get that to work.
Anyone have any suggestions for getting her files transferred?
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Could it be a permission thing? Try going to Properties->Security and try getting Full control or ownership of the files.
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
It would be good to know whether this is a problem with read rights or write rights.
Can you open any of these files in their respective editors without copying them?
Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
Like others are saying, it's probably permissions. I've used that exact adapter/cable/interface before, and it's worked perfectly. In fact, we bought two for the office, after I introduced my boss to them.
I almost recommended using a Linux live CD, but that can introduce you to setting write permissions in an unfamiliar operating system...
Try to take ownership of the files, like Mucus said.
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
I suspect the problem is with where he is copying to. It's not a common scenario in the Windows world to have files that can be browsed but not copied, particularly on a local drive. Read-only directories, however, are all over the place.
Posted by DSH (Member # 741) on :
Yeah it's a permission problem. Part of the problem is I can't seem to change any of the permission settings. It gives me the same 'access denied' message I get when I try to copy files.
When the old computer died, there was only one user account (with administrator privileges) and it was password protected. Could this be part of the problem?
I mentioned booting a computer with the old drive because it seemed like an easy way to get around the permissions problem. On 2 different computers I've tried to change the drive the computer boots from but neither will recognize the USB drive (yes it's plugged in!). I also tried opening up my desktop and swapping the HD's but they have different connectors.
Posted by DSH (Member # 741) on :
Fourth time's a charm I guess. Tried accessing the old HD using a fourth PC and was in and transferring files in about a minute.
Still don't know what the issue was on the other machines...
Thanks anyway. Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
), but here goes: