2 Windows Installs, 2 Hard Drives ~ Problems

[PhoenixStorm]

I have recently bought a second hard drive as my first was experiencing disk problems, so i set the new one as the master, and my old one as the slave, I installed windows on the new hard drive, and then when I came to access certain folders from the old hard drive, such as things inside the different users areas, I was told I was unable to access those areas. Is there any way to get round this?

I am still able to remove the new hard drive and boot from the old hard drive to have access to those files, but it would make it a lot easier if I could just access them from the new hard drive.

Both of the hard drives have Windows XP Service pack 2 installed if thats any help.

Thanks in advance for any replies

[dglienna]

Change the whole drive to Shared by everyone, so you can access it from another system. You should copy all the needed files to the new drive, and then format the old one, and use it just for data.

[PhoenixStorm]

Since posting, the condition of the drive has gotten worse, I can no longer run windows from that drive, I can get as far as the desktop at which point the PC crashes, I have tried to use Windows Repair console on it, but the console just reports that the errors are unrepairable. Is there any way to make it shared from the new windows install?

[dglienna]

You might be able to log onto the drive,using your old un/pw, but if the drive is failing, you might just want to try to image it one last time

[Ideas Man]

If you have the capacity, copy all the required data off the old HDD onto your new HDD in Windows on the second drive, then format the first. You should be able to access the data on the second drive w/o much hassles. If you do encounter hassles, just reset the security permissions so that everyone has full control, replace permissions on all children items and try again.

The absolute WORST thing you can do if a HDD is failing is generally use it. Try to refrain from using it for anything except backing up in case it's a hardware fault that may eventually lead to total data loss if not backed up in time.