M
Marcus Grant
Hello,
I am not able to open files that were originally saved onto the desktop of a
previous Windows installation. Trying to open any file whether it be a JPEG,
windows media, or a text file, result in the standard registered application
(i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and Notepad) display that the
file not viewable.
Internet Explorer just shows an "X" image placeholder for the JPEG image.
Windows Media Player pops out an error dialog box saying "The file you are
attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format.
Playing the file may result in unexpected behavior." Notepad just displays
an empty text file, although there seems to be tons of spaces where I assume
the original text should have been.
I originally had a Windows XP Professional installation with Service Pack 2
and opt to reformat my whole hard drive and reinstall Windows XP Profession
with Service Pack 1. Before the reformat, I moved all my data files into a
different hard drive for safekeeping. I had many files stored in folders
located on the desktop and moved those also. After the reinstall, I moved
all my files back to their original locations, reinstalled the rest of my
applications, and applied all the Windows XP hot fixes, making sure that I
didn't install Service Pack 2.
What I then found out is that almost the files that were originally on the
prior installation's Windows desktop couldn't be opened. This also includes
the My Documents folder. I had relatively success opening text files still,
having them containing the original text. I am able to open all files
originally stored in other directories (i.e. C:\TEMP) and hard drives.
I created the same user accounts with the same permissions (Computer
Administrator). All the hard disks were formatted in NTFS and using the
basic disk instead of dynamic disk. I thought this would have been a
security issue, so I disabled simple file sharing, and made sure to set the
owners of the folders to the current user. That didn't help out. I tried
copying some of the files to a floppy drive (FAT format) hoping that some
security specific data would be lost. I wasn't able to open the files from
the floppy drive either. I also tried copying the files over the network to
another computer but I still wasn't able to view the files from the other
computer.
Can you guys please help me out? The computer is use by my whole family and
we have many documents for school, work, and personal projects that I don't
want to be gone. I believe that I'm a computer savvy person, currently
working as a software engineer and worked in the IT field in my high school
years. Opening the non-viewable files in a hex editor on a second computer
showed me all data as zero bytes. So this problem stumps me. I always
reinstall Windows 9x/ME/2k occasionally but this is the second time that I
reinstalled XP. The first time, done months ago, exhibited the same problem
only on one folder and I attributed it to a sister incorrectly saving files.
Thank you in advance,
Marcus Grant
I am not able to open files that were originally saved onto the desktop of a
previous Windows installation. Trying to open any file whether it be a JPEG,
windows media, or a text file, result in the standard registered application
(i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, and Notepad) display that the
file not viewable.
Internet Explorer just shows an "X" image placeholder for the JPEG image.
Windows Media Player pops out an error dialog box saying "The file you are
attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format.
Playing the file may result in unexpected behavior." Notepad just displays
an empty text file, although there seems to be tons of spaces where I assume
the original text should have been.
I originally had a Windows XP Professional installation with Service Pack 2
and opt to reformat my whole hard drive and reinstall Windows XP Profession
with Service Pack 1. Before the reformat, I moved all my data files into a
different hard drive for safekeeping. I had many files stored in folders
located on the desktop and moved those also. After the reinstall, I moved
all my files back to their original locations, reinstalled the rest of my
applications, and applied all the Windows XP hot fixes, making sure that I
didn't install Service Pack 2.
What I then found out is that almost the files that were originally on the
prior installation's Windows desktop couldn't be opened. This also includes
the My Documents folder. I had relatively success opening text files still,
having them containing the original text. I am able to open all files
originally stored in other directories (i.e. C:\TEMP) and hard drives.
I created the same user accounts with the same permissions (Computer
Administrator). All the hard disks were formatted in NTFS and using the
basic disk instead of dynamic disk. I thought this would have been a
security issue, so I disabled simple file sharing, and made sure to set the
owners of the folders to the current user. That didn't help out. I tried
copying some of the files to a floppy drive (FAT format) hoping that some
security specific data would be lost. I wasn't able to open the files from
the floppy drive either. I also tried copying the files over the network to
another computer but I still wasn't able to view the files from the other
computer.
Can you guys please help me out? The computer is use by my whole family and
we have many documents for school, work, and personal projects that I don't
want to be gone. I believe that I'm a computer savvy person, currently
working as a software engineer and worked in the IT field in my high school
years. Opening the non-viewable files in a hex editor on a second computer
showed me all data as zero bytes. So this problem stumps me. I always
reinstall Windows 9x/ME/2k occasionally but this is the second time that I
reinstalled XP. The first time, done months ago, exhibited the same problem
only on one folder and I attributed it to a sister incorrectly saving files.
Thank you in advance,
Marcus Grant