Trying to save data by using by hooking up bad drive to good computer

Instead of trying to hook up the bad drive as a slave in a good computer can I get the same result by hooking up by using something like the I/O Magic enclosure that would plug in via usb? My son's computer is stuck in a loop, as it seems. It refuses to go past the system recovery screen. Have tried and tried to get it to but it won't. Didn't want to do a destructive recovery as he has many photos he would like to see if I can save and or find. I appreciate any help.

 

That should work.

You could also use my favorite tool:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

 

Thanks! I bought the I/O Magic thing yesterday hoping it might work. I like the looks of your favorite tool though. Cheaper than what I paid too.
Is there any special software I need or can I just, hopefully, transfer photos and other needed data off of it onto the good working computer or onto a different storage device?

 

No special software required, you just have to take ownership of the folders on the connected drive. Once you own them, you can transfer them to the device of your choice.

:cool

 

Well, I have been working away and think I finally found most of the pictures. Yippee! My son is very happy! :-D
In searching for the pictures, I first searched jpeg and came up with a few but found allot more when I did a search for jpg. Is there any other searches I should use to make sure I have them all?
Also, not sure what you mean by taking ownership of the folders? How is this done?
Running AVG, it has found 8 trojans in a backup folder. Should I just be able to remove that particular backup folder to get rid of them. AVG doesn't seem to know how. Thanks again.

 

You might also search for png and bmp as these are common picture types, although most of his personal pictures were probably found in the jpg variations.

Often the My Documents folder will show as empty unless you take ownership of it. Which operating system is the computer you are using running? And if you browse to his HD letter then Users\hisusername\My Documents does it open and let you see his documents and also let you into the My Pictures folder? If you right-click those two folders and select Properties does it show 0 bytes or does it have a larger number? A larger number means you have access, 0 bytes means you have to take permission.

 

I got a little anxious and decided to see if I could put the old hard drive back in the old E machine and see if I could make it work. Well, it still wouldn't let me do a nondestructive restore so I went ahead and did the destructive. Since I was able to save all the pics, that will be a big blessing but still have to go about reinstalling all that he had relative to programs etc.
Thanks for all your help.