Failing Hard Drives

Has Windows reported that your hard drive is failing?  If you have, heed its warning and backup your files immediately.  I am currently trying to recover files from such a device.  It's difficult, to say the least.  One of the most difficult aspects of a failing hard drive is recovering the files from the user folders.  Copy these files to your backup choice as quickly as possible.  These files are password protected so moving the drive to a new machine and attempting to copy them is not as easy as copy and paste. 

If you ever find yourself trying to copy files from an old hard drive that is failing, or otherwise has files tucked away in a user account folder, here are a few tricks you can use to unlock the files for access, after all, it's your data anyway.

1] Install the "Take Ownership" Registry hack and use as described.
2] Use the security tab to give the administrator access.
3] Copy files in as small of groups as possible to reduce load on the failing HD.