Urgent!! Can't copy/move or open files in Maxtor external drive.

I've recently changed to a new notebook running on Vista Business (my
previous machine runs on XP SP2). In the process of transferring the backup
data from a Maxtor OneTouch 4 external drive, the OS prompted that i need
administrator permission to do so. I tried transferring again logging in as
administrator but the problem still persist.

my numerous calls to Maxtor to rectify the problem all pointed that the
problem is caused by Vista.

I need help urgently as all my work data are in the external drive.

You forgot to tell us, quoting any error messages exactly, what happens when
you try. In the meantime, try taking ownership of the Maxtor files/folders:

A. Check the permissions of the file or folder the file is saved in and take
ownership:

1. Right-click the file or folder, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab.
3. Under Group or user names, click your name to see the permissions you
have.

To open a file, you need to have read permission. For more information on
permissions, see What are permissions?

http://tinyurl.com/2j9vgr

To take ownership of a folder:

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an
administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
confirmation.
4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
6. Click OK

B. Run this at an elevated Command Prompt:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g Administrators:f [enter]

This will give full rights to all the files and folders on drive C: to the
Administrators group, any member to this group will then have full rights
to the files.

To grant full rights to a specific user issue the command with the user's
name:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g Steve:f [enter]

will grant Steve full rights to all the files and folders on C:. If the
user name has spaces you must surround it with quotation marks:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g "Some User":f [enter]

Hi,

i tried out your method but it still did not work out. Then i send the
external drive to a data recovery company to try.

however they inform me that they also cannot recover the data. reason given
was the data was encrypted by my previous notebook (that runs on XP).

I am very sure that i did not encrypt data at all as i was using Maxtor
Backup Manager to conduct the backup on a daily basis.


the setting for backup was to backup files from a few specific folders.

Well, that's what comes from leaving out the one really essential piece of
information. You'll get inaccurate answers and people wasting their time
trying to help you.

If the data recovery company is a reputable one, then their assessment that
the data is encrypted is most probably correct. You may not remember
encrypting the data, but data doesn't magically become encrypted all by
itself. I don't know anything about Maxtor Backup Manager. You might want
to contact Maxtor for further help and/or see if Elcomsoft can help you.

http://www.elcomsoft.com/

Looking at that site and watching the online tour sure shows how to encrypt
the files. Perhaps you did and had just forgotten? By watching this tour it
is impossible for this encryption to have been done by it's self.

http://syndicate.sellpoint.net/Seaga...alog/OT4_Plus/

In an effort to help you I was going to suggest installing the software on
another XP machine and see if you can recover it from there, but you
obviously don't remember the password if you don't remember encrypting the
files

If by chance you do remember, follow this....
http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...V4dD1lbmNyeXB0


You might also get help here.....
http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/Main/support.shtml

One last thing from their site. If you loose your password then it is
unrecoverable