How to Access User Folders on an Old Hard Drive in Windows 10/11

Well, this seems to be stumping a lot of people:

Is it difficult to access it from the old hard drive? Of course not. In this article, you'll learn how to access your User folders from the old hard drive in Windows 10. If, for some unforeseen reason, you can't get to the data this way, a data recovery tool at the end of the article may help.

Translating English to Chinese involves turning English text into Chinese, which can be done through manual methods, translation software, or online tools. For instance, the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." would be translated as "那只敏捷的棕色狐狸跳过那只懒狗." in Chinese.

How to Access the User Folder on an Old Hard Drive

Before you browse your user folder on the old hard drive, watch this video for more details about recovering Mac documents.

• 00:48 - Right-click on the user folder
• 00:56 - Select the "Security" tab
• 01:00 - Click "Advanced"
• 01:11 - Change the folder ownership
• 01:29 - Select "Everyone"

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to get access to an old hard drive in Windows 10, and how to take ownership of a file or folder and grant full control permissions in Windows 10.

Step 1: Right-click the file or folder you want to compress.

Step 2. Select "Properties" from the drop-down menu.

Step 3. Click the Security tab in the Properties window.

4. Click the “Advanced” button at the bottom of the table.

Step 5: Click the “Change” link next to “Owner.”

Step 6: You should see the “Select Users or Groups” window. Click on the “Advanced” button.

Step 7: Click “Search Now.”

Step 8: Enter your username and click OK.

Step 9: Tap OK.

Step 10: Check the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects box, and then click Apply.

Step 11. If a Windows Security warning appears, click Allow.

Please provide the English content you wish to translate, and I will do my best to translate it into Chinese.

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After doing this, you should be able to access the folder. If you get a message like “You don't have permission to see the X folder,” follow the steps below to gain access to your old hard drive.

Step 1: Close the Settings dialog box you opened in the previous steps.

Step 2: Right-click on the folder and select "Properties."

Step 3: Click the "Security" tab.

Step 4: Click "Edit" in the "Groups and usernames" table.

Step 5: Click “Add.”

Step 6: Type “Everyone” into the box, and then click “Check Names” and “OK.”

Step 7. Select "Full Control" and click "Apply".

If this method helped you access your user folder on an old hard drive, share the article on social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc!

Additional Tip: How to Recover Files When the User Folder is Unaccessible

If the above guide still doesn't help you access your user folder, it might be due to a virus attack or system crash. But don't worry. You can use data recovery software, like the Data Recovery Wizard tool, to perform a magical process of recovering data from an old hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7. You can recover and save your data to a secure location and then access the inaccessible folder.

Data recovery is the standout feature of this software. As far as device compatibility is concerned, it can recover data from internal/external hard drives, USB flash drives, memory sticks, SD cards, and the like.

Please download the Data Recovery Wizard and follow the steps to recover data from the inaccessible folder.

Step 1: Launch the Disk Drill data recovery wizard in Windows 11/10/8/7, choose the location of the lost data, and click “Scan.”

Step 2: Once the scan is over, you can use the left panel or the file format filter in the top-right corner to locate the needed files. Then, click on the "Preview" button or double-click on the file to preview its content.

Step 3: Check the box next to the files you wish to recover, then click "Recover" to restore your lost data to a secure location.

Conclusion

This is what we'll be discussing in this article, where we'll provide you with the complete details on how to access your user folder from an old hard drive. The steps might seem a bit complicated, but they do work. In case you're unable to reach your data due to a sudden crash, data recovery software can assist you. Hopefully, you'll find what you're looking for on this page.

【2】Common Issues with Accessing User Folders on Old Hard Drives

There are two additional questions about accessing user folders on an old hard drive here, with answers you might find useful.

How do I restrict access to a folder in Windows 10/11?

1. Right-click on the user folder you want to restrict, and select "Properties" from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Click on the "Security" tab. You will see the existing user accounts listed there.

Step 3: Click the Edit button under Group or username.

Step 4: Click the "Add" button under "Groups or Usernames."

Step 5: Type the name of the object user in the blank field.

Step 6: Click Check Names, and then click OK.

Step 7: Go to [Group or User Name], and select the new user. Under Permissions, check the Deny box next to Full Control.

Step 8. Click the Yes button when prompted with the warning message.

Step 9: Tap OK.

After going through these steps, the specific user will no longer have access to the folder. If they try to open it, they'll see a message such as "You currently do not have permission to access this folder." If they click "Continue" to try to proceed anyway, they'll see "Access is denied to this folder."

2. Where is the "All Users" folder in Windows 10/11?

Your user files are stored in the C:/Users folder. You can access the C drive by clicking on "This PC," and then selecting your username to view folders like "Pictures," "Desktop," "Downloads," "Documents," and more. You can also open user folders from other computers.