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Many disks are protected by passwords controlling access to the disk and often user files.  CnW Recovery software reads files directly and by passes all such passwords. It is therefore not necessary to have access to a password in order to read files from a directory that the operating system will not allow access to.

The same applies to system files, which can all be read and saved on a new hard drive.

User login passwords

Sometimes (typically a laptop) can not be used because the user has defined a password that has since been lost, or deliberately changed.  As described above, CnW Recovery software will read the files, but it may be necessary to find the password in order to handle encrypted files and to restore the PC to a full working state.  CnW does not do any decoding of passwords but it can read two of the critical files that staore the information.  These are the SAM file and SYSTEM file, typically stored in  windows\system32\config  It is not normally possible to read such files without special tools, or CnW.  CnW does require the hard drive operating as a slave drive to access such files.

There are then several tools that may be found on the web to assist with accessing passwords, and two such programs are 'John the Ripper' and SAMInside, which both make use of the SAM and SYSTEM files. A web search will also highlight many more.