the files on my computer. Advice? I had a buncha songs, vids, documents, etc... I know they're still there cause I didn't over write them, I just can't access them. I've been looking through google for help but it's not helping.

1/26/2007 10:19:42 AM

flame suits on

1/26/2007 10:22:28 AM

[Edited on January 26, 2007 at 10:28 AM. Reason : must bring your own weapons. safety not guaranteed. i have only done this once before]

1/26/2007 10:27:34 AM

how did you reinstall windows? i assume you used the same drive...or did you use a second drive?

1/26/2007 10:30:02 AM

I clicked the second option.

1/26/2007 10:41:34 AM

that's a manufacturer-proprietary program. who's your computer's manufacturer?

1/26/2007 10:46:16 AM

login as admin, change ownership rights of your old profile under %systemroot%\documents and settings

1/26/2007 10:54:15 AM

such a pain in the ass. That's windows XP right? I friggin hated that crap. Took me forever to get all the damn rights assigned correctly. A lot of them just wouldn't allow me to propigate down through folders. You had to do each file individually. It took me like 6 hours.

Yes I was logged in as administrator.

1/26/2007 11:04:33 AM

^ yeah rights can be a pain in the ass or your best friend, kinda like cops now that i think of it.

so kbbrown i assume theres no folder called C:My Backup or whatever?

Can you go to Cocuments and Settings and see if your old username is there? If it is, can you double click on it and see some more folders?

and you are using Windows XP here right?

1/26/2007 11:20:31 AM

^So how do I start changing the rights? Cause the problem I keep getting is:

1/26/2007 11:26:02 AM

basically you'll right click on a folder, go to properties, then security, then advanced, then owners, then set yourself as the owner as the folder. also be sure to check the box that applies the change to all subfolders.

for more detailed instructions:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-25,SUNA:en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=is+not+accessible+access+is+denied&spell=1

1/26/2007 1:02:20 PM

You don't have to do each file manually.
You can use xcacls (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825751) to script the thing.

1/26/2007 7:21:51 PM

that first screen shot says all hard drive contents will be backed up to the 'C:\My Backup' folder

just change the rights on that folder

1/26/2007 8:02:40 PM

Well I wasn't able to change the rights because

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=SUNA,SUNA:2006-25,SUNA:en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=is+not+accessible+access+is+denied&spell=1

is for Windows XP Professional and I have Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2

Although I did check the folder I believed the files I'm trying to locate was in and it was empty.

I did an entire system search and the files never turned up in any folder, but if you look at this:



It says the files are still there. I just can't find them.

Anyone with Linux wanna take a look at my hard drive and see where they are?

1/29/2007 4:40:52 PM

Something similar happened to my sister with her laptop. What we ended up doing was booting the computer off a linux live CD and then mounting the HDD and ftping the files onto another computer. It wasn't fun, but it worked.

1/29/2007 6:58:53 PM

you could probably plug it into a pro system, take ownership of the folder, then burn/transfer the files.

maybe try the linux live cd...that might work.

moral of the story is ALWAYS do a clean install of Windows XP. Use a different drive, or back up your crap first, then do a clean full install of windows.

1/29/2007 7:30:35 PM

Find somebody on here with a laptop and external case. They can take care of the problem in 15 minutes or less. I'd offer except all my equipment is still in VA

1/29/2007 7:41:16 PM

Yes, in Pro you can do that in regular mode -- for Home, just reboot into safe mode, and then go from there (right click, security, etc)

when you take ownership of the folder, make sure you have checked the box that says "replace owner on subcontainers and object" that should take ownership of everything in your old user account, so you only have to do it the one time.



[Edited on January 29, 2007 at 11:02 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2007 10:59:40 PM