Long story short....

I built a system for my friend over a year ago, for her son, as he was going
away to school. I got a call a few days ago, stating he was trying to
reinstall windows XP Pro. When I asked, he didn't realise he needed to backup
the drive first.

I have the computer to fix now and am stumped. I can't stop the install at
this point, but his files are still on the drive. The current install is bad
/corrupted, I never got to see the error. I tried to hook the drive up to my
new system, Vista Premium and had problems even getting ownership of the
files to back them up. I them placed it in my kid's XP Home system and got
one layer deeper, but I still can't get the files backed up.

I can't take ownership, I can't back up the files, I am denied every time I
try.

F:\Documentsandsettings\Jake\Misc. files and folders

Any ideas, ANYONE? PLEASE?

I've never run into this. I've always been able to back up files manually.
The only thing I can think of, is that possibly he made the files private,
unknowingly and then forgot about it. I'm not prompted for a password, he
claims he never put one on there.

I believe that is all I can possibly tell you at this point.

Thanks in advance.

"LittleElf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:FCF89FB3-3424-478C-B9A5-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Long story short....
>
> I built a system for my friend over a year ago, for her son, as he was
going
> away to school. I got a call a few days ago, stating he was trying to
> reinstall windows XP Pro. When I asked, he didn't realise he needed to
backup
> the drive first.
>
> I have the computer to fix now and am stumped. I can't stop the install at
> this point, but his files are still on the drive. The current install is
bad
> /corrupted, I never got to see the error. I tried to hook the drive up to
my
> new system, Vista Premium and had problems even getting ownership of the
> files to back them up. I them placed it in my kid's XP Home system and got
> one layer deeper, but I still can't get the files backed up.
>
> I can't take ownership, I can't back up the files, I am denied every time
I
> try.
>
> F:\Documentsandsettings\Jake\Misc. files and folders
>
> Any ideas, ANYONE? PLEASE?
>
> I've never run into this. I've always been able to back up files manually.
> The only thing I can think of, is that possibly he made the files private,
> unknowingly and then forgot about it. I'm not prompted for a password, he
> claims he never put one on there.
>
> I believe that is all I can possibly tell you at this point.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>

You must log on as administrator before you can seize ownership
of some folders. You also need to modify your advice to your
friend. The problem is not so much that he failed to back up his
files before re-installing Windows (which is highly recommended
but not strictly necessary). The problem is that he does not
appear to have any regular backup process in place. If he had
then his files would be safe.

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "LittleElf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:FCF89FB3-3424-478C-B9A5-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Long story short....
> >
> > I built a system for my friend over a year ago, for her son, as he was
> going
> > away to school. I got a call a few days ago, stating he was trying to
> > reinstall windows XP Pro. When I asked, he didn't realise he needed to
> backup
> > the drive first.
> >
> > I have the computer to fix now and am stumped. I can't stop the install at
> > this point, but his files are still on the drive. The current install is
> bad
> > /corrupted, I never got to see the error. I tried to hook the drive up to
> my
> > new system, Vista Premium and had problems even getting ownership of the
> > files to back them up. I them placed it in my kid's XP Home system and got
> > one layer deeper, but I still can't get the files backed up.
> >
> > I can't take ownership, I can't back up the files, I am denied every time
> I
> > try.
> >
> > F:\Documentsandsettings\Jake\Misc. files and folders
> >
> > Any ideas, ANYONE? PLEASE?
> >
> > I've never run into this. I've always been able to back up files manually.
> > The only thing I can think of, is that possibly he made the files private,
> > unknowingly and then forgot about it. I'm not prompted for a password, he
> > claims he never put one on there.
> >
> > I believe that is all I can possibly tell you at this point.
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> >
>
> You must log on as administrator before you can seize ownership
> of some folders. You also need to modify your advice to your
> friend. The problem is not so much that he failed to back up his
> files before re-installing Windows (which is highly recommended
> but not strictly necessary). The problem is that he does not
> appear to have any regular backup process in place. If he had
> then his files would be safe.

Yes, I already chastised him about that. Also about trying to re-install
without asking for help, when he didn't need to re-install at the moment. I
had advised him to try a repair first. When he didn't know what to do, he
should have called.

I have logged on as the administrator on my machines and taken ownership of
the HD and his environment, however, it didn't trickle down to his folders.
It didn't offer me that option. When I try to take ownership of the sub files
or folders, I get a denied message. When I follow the instructions to take
ownership or to gain access, I am denied again.

I hope this helps anyone that might have ideas about how to help me. I am
sorry my post wasn't clear before.

"LittleElf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:864F5546-8C41-4904-83CE-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
> >
> > "LittleElf" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> > news:FCF89FB3-3424-478C-B9A5-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > > Long story short....
> > >
> > > I built a system for my friend over a year ago, for her son, as he was
> > going
> > > away to school. I got a call a few days ago, stating he was trying to
> > > reinstall windows XP Pro. When I asked, he didn't realise he needed to
> > backup
> > > the drive first.
> > >
> > > I have the computer to fix now and am stumped. I can't stop the
install at
> > > this point, but his files are still on the drive. The current install
is
> > bad
> > > /corrupted, I never got to see the error. I tried to hook the drive up
to
> > my
> > > new system, Vista Premium and had problems even getting ownership of
the
> > > files to back them up. I them placed it in my kid's XP Home system and
got
> > > one layer deeper, but I still can't get the files backed up.
> > >
> > > I can't take ownership, I can't back up the files, I am denied every
time
> > I
> > > try.
> > >
> > > F:\Documentsandsettings\Jake\Misc. files and folders
> > >
> > > Any ideas, ANYONE? PLEASE?
> > >
> > > I've never run into this. I've always been able to back up files
manually.
> > > The only thing I can think of, is that possibly he made the files
private,
> > > unknowingly and then forgot about it. I'm not prompted for a password,
he
> > > claims he never put one on there.
> > >
> > > I believe that is all I can possibly tell you at this point.
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > You must log on as administrator before you can seize ownership
> > of some folders. You also need to modify your advice to your
> > friend. The problem is not so much that he failed to back up his
> > files before re-installing Windows (which is highly recommended
> > but not strictly necessary). The problem is that he does not
> > appear to have any regular backup process in place. If he had
> > then his files would be safe.
>
> Yes, I already chastised him about that. Also about trying to re-install
> without asking for help, when he didn't need to re-install at the moment.
I
> had advised him to try a repair first. When he didn't know what to do, he
> should have called.
>
> I have logged on as the administrator on my machines and taken ownership
of
> the HD and his environment, however, it didn't trickle down to his
folders.
> It didn't offer me that option. When I try to take ownership of the sub
files
> or folders, I get a denied message. When I follow the instructions to take
> ownership or to gain access, I am denied again.
>
> I hope this helps anyone that might have ideas about how to help me. I am
> sorry my post wasn't clear before.

Your report is at variance with my own experience. Start a Command
Prompt, then try the commands below and post the contents of
c:\test.txt if you still have a problem:

fileacl.exe "c:\temp" /o sandy58 /sub 1>c:\test.txt 2>&1
fileacl.exe "c:\temp\some folder" /owner 1>>c:\test.txt 2>>&1

The second command should refer to a folder that you think does
not get the correct ownership.

You can download fileacl.exe from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Ok, I think I found the problem with a help of one of my Californian friends.
Thanks JW, if you're watching this post...

I have written some instructions out and I hope this helps. I had to vary my
steps slightly when fixing the permissions on some files. It didn't seem to
have any rhyme or reason to the files needing some extra TLC, so this will
work for most files, but may not work for all files. I do hope this helps
someone else though.

Ok, here goes.

The first thing I did after my friend said that I had to set the permissions
to everyone, is to try that. When it didn't work, I had the bright idea to
look at who had full permissions. I found that in my Vista setup, "SYSTEM"
had all the permissions. So here are the steps I used.......


1 - I made a new account as a standard user (SYSTEM privileges are included
with this type of user).


2 - Then I went to the drive and right clicked on the drive to open the
properties window.

3 - Then went to the security tab, clicked on continue, then entered the
administrative password and clicked ok.

4 - I then clicked on other users or groups and the select users and groups
window popped up.

5 - I then entered "Everyone" to the box, and clicked ok and the window
closed.

6 - I then clicked on the box under the other users or groups button that
says, "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects".

7 - I then hit apply, yes on the box that popped up and ok to the next
window that popped up.

8 - When the boxes closed and only the properties window was left I clicked
ok and the window closed.

9 - I then right clicked the drive to open the properties window again.

10 - I clicked on the sharing tab next.

11 - Then I clicked on the advanced sharing box that opened a window where I
added the administrative password.

12 - After entering the password I clicked Ok.

13 - The advanced sharing window popped up and I clicked the box to share
this folder, file, drive, etc. then I clicked apply and ok.

14 - Then I clicked the close button.

This solved the problem on accessing and copying almost all the files I
needed to. Some of the files were more tricky and I had to use similar steps
through different windows to gain access. I had to just play around though to
get all those done. There were to many variables to be able to write them all
down and what I did with some, didn't work with others. I know that isn't
comforting, but that is all I can tell you. If someone has a problem after
using these steps, I'd be happy to try and help, just leave a message here. I
don't get here often, but I have it set to e-mail me on replies.

I hope this helps, but I'm sorry if it doesn't. Thanks for all your help
everyone.

LittleElf