Protected Files On Different Drive

[hi_what_is_up!]

How can I access my old files from before I re-formatted my windows? Long story short...linux went gay and i couldn't do anything so I had to put windows back on...re-install drivers which was a pain in the ass and now I can't get to my rar of files that I made up for when I re-installed windows. Please help.

[uNz[i]]

Easiest way I can think of doing it....

Try using a liveCD linux distro like Knoppix to retrieve your files.
If you've changed over to NTFS, use Partition Magic to create a FAT32 partition to copy the RARS onto.

Or just use Knoppix to burn them to CD. Obviously you'll need a second CD drive to do that though. :rolleyes:

Edit: Oh snap. Missed the bit where you said you've formatted over the top of the files. :frusty:

Good luck mate. There's retrieval utilities out there, but they're beyond the scope of my experience.
Maybe someone else can help you.

[hi_what_is_up!]

No.

My Windows partition is C:\ because I just said screw linux after it went retarded so I am using windows xp home.

My D:\ Hard drive partition has my old documents that were user password protected and made private and now I can't retrieve them.

[uNz[i]]

Oh right... I see.
Knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) might still be the way to go then.
Don't know if the password protection will be an issue though. :unsure:

[4play]

i know if they are password protected then you will need to use the same username and password that you did before to be able to access them.

i dont know of any programs to just copy them but there might be one.

[hi_what_is_up!]

Damn...that didn't work. I tried same username and password with no such luck.

Anyone help me here please?

[hi_what_is_up!]

Someone please help :helpsmile: .

[4play]

can you give us a bit more detail please.

what files / where / did you use windows encryption thingy/ that type of partition was it.

edit : microsofts answer to the problem. (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/encrypt_to_recover_encrypted.mspx)

[hi_what_is_up!]

It's not really encrypted but it was in my old user name's my documents file and I made the file private and I had a password. When I go to click on the My Documents folder it just says access denied. It has some movies and my important documents in it.