Access to NTFS Private Folders?

[dkfreedan]

I'm attempting to recover files and folders off a Vista Home Premium laptop. I have had great success with Knoppix in the past when I suspect corrupted partion tables so I attempted it again. ntfsfix ftw!

This time...

This time I tried ntfsfix and unfortunately it didn't solve the issue. I tried gparted's scan and fix option too... it errored out. I can mount the drive and access files on it so I know that the data is intact... So I figured I would just backup all their important data (pics, docs, etc.) and wipe the drive and start fresh.

The problem...

The problem is when I browse to "Pictures", "Documents", "Music", etc. They all show as empty, but folders like "windows", "Program Files" and others I can view just fine. What I believe to be the cause of this is that in Vista under user accounts they checked that stupid box that says "make my folders private".

The Question...

The question is, how do I access their data to back it up? I have their windows username and password information if that helps at all...

[HelpPleas]

When working with Knoppix v5.1.1 and v5.3.1, I have always found that Windows permissions are ignored. So unless the data is encrypted, you should be able to read it.

On the other hand, when the file system is corrupted because the drive itself is damaged and has bad sectors, parts of the folder structure can be lost, and this might have happened in your case.

[Leppie]

i'm not sure testdisk is also in the knoppix repos, but if not you can also download from the cgsecurity website (sorry, cannot link because of my post count...)
otherwise with apt:

# apt-get install testdisk