How to Access User Folder on Old Hard Drive Windows 10/11

How to access user folder on old hard drive Windows 10? Someone just changes the hard drive from an old computer to a new computer or is interested in how to access user folder on old hard drive to take ownership or change permission. That's what this article does. Follow the steps to access user folder on old hard drive.

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Page Table of Contents

Updated By

Tracy King

Updated on

27 November 2024

Min Reading

9 Min

Well, the problem seems stumped a lot of people to access their user folder as follows:

I recently had an issue which caused me to have to reinstall windows onto a different drive, and now that I've got that done, I'm trying to copy over my old files to the new drive and open user folder from another computer. Problem: I can't access my old user folder. 

from Microsoft Q&A

Is this hard to access from an old hard disk? Of course not, in this article, you can get the way to access user folder on old hard drive in Windows 10. If this method fails to access selected data due to some unexpected reasons, a data recovery tool can help you solve the problem at the end of the article.

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
How to Access User Folder on Old Hard Drive You can take ownership and grant full control to files or folders to access. Right-click on the file or folder and select Properties. Click the Security tab...Full steps
How to Recover Files When Can't Access User Folder  If your user folder fails to access, you can use EaseUS EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover folders from an old hard drive in simple steps...Full steps
More Useful Guides on Accessing User Folder You can also learn how to restrict access to a folder in Windows 10. Right-click the target user folder. Choose Properties on the drop-down menu...Full steps

How to Access User Folder on Old Hard Drive

Before you are going to access user folder on old hard drive, watch this video first. It provides you with more details on Mac document recovery.

  1. 00:48 - Right click on user folder
  2. 00:56 - Select Security tab
  3. 01:00 - Click on advanced
  4. 01:11 - Change the owner of folder
  5. 01:29 - Select everyone 

Here is the step-by-step tutorial about how to get permission to access old hard drive windows 10 and take ownership and grant full control to files or folders in Windows 10.

Step 1. Right-click on the targeted file or folder.

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

take ownership 1

Step 3. On the Property window, click the "Security" tab.

take ownership 2

Step 4. Click the "Advanced" button below the table.

take ownership 3

Step 5. Choose the "Change" tab next to the Owner.

take ownership 4

Step 6. You can see the "Select User or Group" window, click the "Advanced" button.

take ownership 5

Step 7. Click "Find Now".

take ownership 6

Step 8. Select a user name and click OK.

Step 9. Click OK.

Step 10. Check the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". And then click Apply.

take ownership 8

Step 11. Click OK if the Windows Security window pops up.

Disappeared User Folder and Files

Recover Not Showing Up/Disappeared User Folder and Files in Windows 10

This page will provide 3 fixes and methods to help you troubleshoot User folder not show up or disappeared error in Windows 10. Read more >>

If you have set the above steps, generally you can access your folder now. But if it shows another warning message like: You don't have the permission to read the X folder. You can continue to get permission to access old hard drive windows 10 as follows:

Step 1. Close the setting dialog opened by the above steps.

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

Step 3. Click the "Security" tab.

Step 4. Under the Group and user name table, click the "Edit".

Step 5. Click "Add".

Step 6. Type "Everyone" on the box. And click on Check names and click "OK".

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

If the methods is helpful to to access user folder on old hard drive, share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms!

 

Bonus Tip: How to Recover Files When User Folder is Fail to Access

If your user folder fails to be access by the above tutorial, the culprits may relate to a virus attack or system crash. Still, don't worry, you can use a data recovery software, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, to try the magical process of how to get data off old hard drive in Windows 11/10/8/7. You can restore and save data to a safe place and read the inaccessible folder.

Data recovery is the salient feature of this software. Speaking of device adaption, it is capable of getting data back on an internal/external hard drive, USB flash drive, memory, SD card, and more.

Download the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and apply the steps to recover data from the folder being not accessible.

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Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard in Windows 11/10/8/7 and choose the place where you lost data. Then, click "Search for Lost Data" to find lost data.

select a location to scan

Step 2. After the scan, use the file format filter on the left or upper right corner to find the files you need. You can also search in the search box, which is the fastest way to find the target file. Then, you can click the "Preview" button or double-click a file to preview its content.

Choose files to recover

Step 3. Click the checkbox next to the file and click "Recover" to get back the lost data to your local storage or Cloud drive.

Recover lost data

Conclusion

That's the topic this article talks about, we provide the full details to access the user folder from the old hard drive. The steps here seem a little complex but it works. If it fails to access data by some sudden crash, data recovery software can help you. Hope you can get what you want on this page.

Access User Folder on Old Hard Drive FAQs

Here are 2 additional questions about how to access user folder on old hard drive. Check here for the answers.

1. How to Restrict Access to a Folder in Windows 10/11?

Step 1. Right-click the user folder you want to restrict. Choose "Properties" on the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Select the "Security" tab. And you can see the existing user account.

Step 3. Under the "Group or user names", click the "Edit" button.

Step 4. Click Add button under the “Group or user name” table.

Step 5. Enter the object user name in the blank box.

Step 6. Click "Check Names" and click "OK".

Step 7. Go to Group or user names, select the newly added user. Under the permissions for < user name >, check "Deny" next to the Full control.

Step 8. Once a warning message shows up, click the "Yes" button.

Step 9. Click the OK button.

Once it is done, a specific user cannot access the folder. If you test it to open the folder, you will see a warning message like "You don't currently have permission to access this folder." If you try to move on via clicking the "Continue" button, you can see the "You have been denied permission to access this folder."

2. Where is All User Folder in Windows 10/11?

Your user files are stored on the C:/Users. You can click This PC to access your C drive. And choose your username to see folders like Pictures, Desktop, Downloads, Documents, and more. You can also open user folder from another computer.

  • Updated by

    Tracy became a member of the EaseUS content team in 2013. Being a technical writer for over 10 years, she is enthusiastic about sharing tips to assist readers in resolving complex issues in disk management, file transfer, PC & Mac performance optimization, etc., like an expert.…
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