Hidden Files? I know they are there.

[Kylibar]

Im running - Ubuntu Server 6.06 LTS on Dell. Works fine. its a 32bit machine. oldskool 2.0 ghz 256mb ram.

The Story - I have a friend of mine who has forgotten his Vista password. He just wants his user files. Easy enough I said. I pulled the HDD out of the computer. His computer is an x64 bit machine. No matter - i should still be able to pull the files. even from a 32 bit machine.

So I hooked the drive up to my external USB interface. did a cold boot with the usb device "on". Worked great.

I mounted by running the command;

mount -t ntfs /dev/sda3 /thenthemountlocation simple enough??

i can view most of the files on the HDD, even some of the hidden ones, such as the file "programdata". But we all know the "Documents and Settings" folder is there, and hidden. I mounted the usb interface to an XP and Vista machine, I can at least view Documents and Settings, but the folders are still empty and or encrypted. I need to get to these files. The only!!!x64 bit machine here is running vista, and its not mine, so i cant install linux on that one ... please help... my friend really wants thoes files. i think they are some digital images or something. anyway... any help would be nice.

[b2bwild]

Your friend could always boot from a Ubuntu/OpenSUSE live CD, and recover files on CD/DVD/USB driver, why to take long way?

[Kylibar]

So, let me get this stright.

1-hook the HDD back into origonal computer.
2-boot from ubuntu live cd
3-??

im successful in mounting the hdd via external usb interface. but files and folders that I KNOW are there arent comming up in ubuntu.

so your saying that i need to just use the live cd on the origonal computer?? with the HDD already mounted (on montherboard). if i do this, how to I extract the files off the HDD? the disc drive is taken up by the live cd. does the live cd have networking support?

im going to give this a shot, but what im curious about is why all the files arent showing, the files I need. how do i get them??

[bigtomrodney]

I think this article should help.

I think officially the files exist in C:\Users and C:\ProgramData though. Hope that helps a little.