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I have some backups which I need to retrieve files from. They are huuuge (8 TB drives).

Because I am not allowed to modify ANY BIT on the disk, I have a adapter that makes the HDD 'read-only'. Nothing can be changed/written. This means that when I connect the disk and try to access Backup Disk Letter:\Users\SomeUser Windows tells me to continue with an administrative prompt (to change ACLs?). This means windows will change the contents on the disk. Which is not allowed. I can't take ownership and clicking continue fails with an error that permissions could not be applied (duh, the disk is read-only!).

I don't have enough space to copy the disk to any other location.

How can I read the files in Backup Drive Letter:\Users\SomeUser (in Windows 10) if I don't have any permissions and can't change/take ownership [or changeeven one bit on the whole drive whatsoever]?

There must be some build-in Windows tools?

Gizmo
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  • Apart from using this special connector, did you actually mount the disk read-only as described here? http://superuser.com/questions/213005/how-to-mount-an-ntfs-partition-read-only-in-windows?rq=1 – vic Mar 16 '16 at 21:45
  • @vic Since that answer stores data (that bit) on the partition, it will fail here. That answer is good reading though. – Ben N Mar 16 '16 at 23:42
  • I still hope you tried it. If it failed, then you will have to use third party tools to access the disks content (which is anyway the usual way of doing forensics). Often, the supplier of this special write block connector will have such software on offer, maybe even for free. – vic Mar 17 '16 at 06:44
  • @Vic thanks for linking that answer, I did try it before asking this question, unfortunately this fails too. – Gizmo Mar 17 '16 at 15:05
  • Try reading the files under linux, it does not care about Windows ACL's and does not need to modify anything to read the files or folders. – Moab Mar 17 '16 at 16:06

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