B. Craig said:
My computer was infected by the blaster worm. I made the
mistake of downloading the Microsoft Critical Pack before
I addressed cleaning out the virus. The critical pack
downloaded okay, but while it was installing on my
harddrive, the installation froze up and the computer
would do nothing. I turned the computer off and turned
it back on. The Dell screen came up, then the Microsoft
XP screen and then the computer restarts over and over.
It never gets to the desk top. It will not come up in
safe mode either. Dell support suggested to reinstall
the operating system,(OS). My daughter has a number of
digital photos that she wants to keep. I installed the
OS in another folder I called "Window" instead
of "Windows". The computer will come up with "window".
When I go into the harddrive, I can see the files that
were created when working in the Windows folder OS. The
problem is my daugther had a password on her account and
I cannot access her folder to extract the digital photos
before I reinstall the OS in the normal folder. My
question is: Is there a way to access that folder or
remove the password protection of her account? Or does
someone know how to fix my problem with the original OS
so I can start getting into the accounts like before the
blaster worm hit us? I would appreciate any help anyone
can give me. Thank you.
B.Craig
Recently a friend of mine and I had a similar problem dealing with his
brothers computer. The problem turned out to be setting the ownership
rights in Windows XP.
I'm pretty sure this is the knowledge base article that we used to
solve the problem...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421
Good Luck
Cut-and-paste below....................................
HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q308421
IN THIS TASK
SUMMARY
How to Take Ownership of a Folder
How to Take Ownership of a File
REFERENCES
SUMMARY
This article describes how to take ownership of a file or folder to
which you have been denied access.
If you require access to a file or folder to which you do not have
access (permission), you must take ownership of that file or folder,
where you replace the security permissions to allow yourself access.
back to the top
How to Take Ownership of a Folder
NOTE: You must be logged on to the computer using an account that has
administrative privileges. If you are running Windows XP Home Edition,
in order to have access to the Security tab, you must first start in
Safe Mode and log on with an account that has Administrative rights.
If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File
Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing
when not joined to a domain. For additional information about how to
do this, click the article number below to view the article in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307874 HOW TO: Disable Simplified Sharing and Password-Protect a
Shared Folder in Windows XP
To take ownership of a folder:
Right-click the folder you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if
one appears).
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are
logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you
want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select
the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK. The following message appears, where folder name is the name
of the folder that you want to take ownership of:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder
name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with
permissions granting you Full Control?
All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Click Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that
you want for the folder and its contents.
back to the top
How to Take Ownership of a File
NOTE: You must be logged on to the computer using an account that has
administrative privileges.
To take ownership of a file, follow these steps:
Right-click the file you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if
one appears).
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list click Administrator, or click the Administrators
group, and then click OK.
The Administrator or Administrators group now owns the file. To change
the permissions on the files and folders under this folder, continue
to step 5.
Click Add.
In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user
or group account to which you want to give access to the file. For
example, Administrator.
Click OK.
In the Group or user names list, click the account that you want (for
example, Administrator), and then click to select the check boxes of
the permissions that you want to assign that user. For example, Full
Control [Allow]. When you are finished assigning permissions, click
OK.
back to the top
REFERENCES
For additional information about file and folder permissions, click
the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
161275 Interaction of File and Folder Security on NTFS Volumes
