PC Not starting up

Lo.j

I rang Maplins to see if they had something in stock as we were just going to get something asap. When I explained the problem to the guy , he said that if the pics were saved to the My Pictures folder, then buying a lead or caddy wouldn't work. He said that when I connected to daughter's computer it would tell me "access denied". A further problem, he said, would be if the PC didn't go straight to the desktop on startup ( which it didn't). It asked what user and I had to click on which of the family was using it.He said that would also lock me out of the hard drive on another computer because of some settings on Windows XP. He said that there was software dowloadable from the net that would maybe help me bypass that but didn't know what it was or if I would understand how to use it ( not being an expert user).
Any further suggestions please ?
On a brighter note, he did agree with everyone one here that my original prob sounds like something other than the hard drive.

Browntoa

I'm not sure thats right

I've recovered pictures for someone from a XP hard disk using the same lead as I posted , the only files I was unable to access were the ones on a password protected user id

if only I was just down the road....

Lo.j

Browntoa wrote: »

I'm not sure thats right

I've recovered pictures for someone from a XP hard disk using the same lead as I posted , the only files I was unable to access were the ones on a password protected user id

if only I was just down the road....

Thanks for that, I appreciate all the help. I'm not sure we had a password protected user id. When I switched on, our names were displayed and we clicked on who was on, and then the desktop came up without entering a password at any stage. From there the pics were located in a "My pictures" folder with no need for password to look at them.
I looked up the net and got this from https://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/HDDProblems.htm#naccess

Am I understanding this right ? I get the leads as before transfer the hard drive and then :
Start daughter's pc in safe mode
Log in as administrator
account in safe mode has no password
open windows explorer
right click "sharing and sec"
click on security tab
click on advanced - ownership
select group entry for adminitrators
put check mark in box called shared ownership
click on apply
if message comes up saying needs to reset permission, click ok.

Does that sound as if it would do the trick for me at all.

Appreciate all the help - I will give you a big shout-out when I pass your way en route to Dover next month !

Browntoa

I did'nt need to do anything as it happened, just negotiated my way to that users documents.......

got nagging feeling might have used a linux disk I have to access it....but not sure....

M2 to dover is about 2 miles from my house

Lo.j

Browntoa wrote: »

I did'nt need to do anything as it happened, just negotiated my way to that users documents.......

got nagging feeling might have used a linux disk I have to access it....but not sure....

M2 to dover is about 2 miles from my house

30th June - get the kettle on - no sugar for me ! LOL

I am setting off for Maplins right now, I phoned them with my safe mode thing from previous post and spoke to someone different.Apparently they have all been discussing it in the shop today and the collective opinion is that becaue I have not encrypted the pics (or something) and not set passwords then I should be okay with the leads. I can always try the safe mode thing if that fails and then try other stuff until I explore all possibilities.
Thanks, as always. I will report back with my progress, or if you hear a big fireworks display from the Scotland direction, you will know I have my photos back !!!! Keep everything crossed for me, won't you ?

Lo.j

Lo.j

To everybody who replied to my post, I am over the moon to say that I bought the leads out of Maplins this afternoon as advised here and my hard drive is intact ! My precious photos are now saved onto CDs and I am saving all my documents and songs as well. I am so happy and grateful that there are lovely people on these forums that go out of their way to help others like me. I have saved money I would have paid out to a data recovery company and also saved the memories that money cannot buy. My heartfelt thanks XXXXX
Lo.j

Browntoa

and you have learnt how to dismantle a PC or 2 ....lol

you are now an honorary Techie !!

albertross_2

Does the PC exhibit your original symptom? If so, tell the supplier that, and tell them you have taken the disk out because it is not relevant to the problem, and you don't want to risk it being wiped while being in for repair, or being damaged in transit.

Lo.j

Browntoa wrote: »

and you have learnt how to dismantle a PC or 2 ....lol

you are now an honorary Techie !!

Thanks so much, I might be giving out the odd bit of techie advice now myself lol- or not. Best advice I could give is back up all your data and not be caught out like me ! All your advice most gratefully received. I'll give you a toot on the way to Dover !

Lo.j

albertross wrote: »

Does the PC exhibit your original symptom? If so, tell the supplier that, and tell them you have taken the disk out because it is not relevant to the problem, and you don't want to risk it being wiped while being in for repair, or being damaged in transit.

Hi, I haven't had time to put the hard drive back in the PC yet, but the woman on the helpdesk yesterday did warn me not to touch anything myself or it would invalidate the warranty. If I get all my stuff off ( and I have all my photos, OU work and documents done already - just ploughing through my tons of music files) I will put down the loss of anything else down to experience.
Many thanks for your advice,if not for it I would still be crying and about to part with a lot of money.
The usb lead/caddy is exceptionally easy to use and I would recommend it to anybody.
Many thanks again

Lo.j