[OT] Recover Files From OS X User Account

[Scott Rossi]

Hello List:

I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion for recovering files from user
accounts (non-admin) on a failing OS X drive (10.4.11).

I don't know yet if the drive is going bad or if the system is simply
corrupt, but I'm hoping to be able to rescue some files from a user account.
I've tried using DiskWarrior on the drive, and it's able to see pretty much
all of the disk, but when attempting look into folders that reside under
user accounts, they show up as inaccessible, just as one would expect when
normally browsing in the Finder.

I get that user accounts are normally inaccessible unless one is logged in
as that user, but I'm hoping someone might know of a utility or process to
be able to extract files from these kind of accounts and "de-protect" them
based on the login information (or if this is even possible).

BTW, I'm accessing the problem drive from an external disk/system -- I
cannot boot up from the problem disk (freezes at the Apple logo).

Thanks for any suggestions.

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design