Why can't I find files when using HD enclosure to salvage pics on my old HD? Windows sees HD but files missing

Question

My HP PC desktop power supply failed so rather then get it fixed I bought a new Gateway. Having lots of files that I wanted off the HP hard drive, I bought an enclosure and put HP hard drive in it in hopes of being able to access these files which mainly consisted of pictures. Under My Computor, the HP HD shows up with the content used but when I open it my old files don't seem to be there. Is my HD bad? Very frustrating. Please help.

Answer 1

Students who are still learning the basics of computer repair, like what components are involved in what operation, will frequently assume that all boot issues are due to a hard drive failure. The truth is, of all the four subsystems represented in this table, hard drives are probably the most reliable. I don't mean that hard drives last longer than memory modules or video cards in the pure MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) sense, I mean they are rarely at fault when you're called in to repair a PC. Hard drive failures are generally pretty easy to troubleshoot, in part because the operating system will include tools to report on the hard drive's reliability when it's accessible..

or
try to reinstall you os,for how to reinstall ,you can read this digg
http://www.heyhelp.com/story.php?title=Windows_XP_Installation
http://www.heyhelp.com/story.php?title=Hard_Drive_and_IDE_CDDVD_Troubleshooting

Answer 2

You're probably used to finding your pictures in your "My Documents" folder.

To find that on this drive, you need to open the "Documents and Settings" folder. In that, you'll find one folder for each user of your old computer. Open the one with your name on it, then open the My Documents folder in there. Your pictures should be in there.

Answer 3

More like the old user account had security applied to it, meaning the contents are encrypted.