can't get at 'my documents' on old drive

[herseem]

I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade the drives,
so replaced both of them one at a time, rebuilding the mirror, so that I
ended up with a mirrored drive that would have much bigger capacity.
Unfortunately, the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand
the size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I ended
up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb but with only a
40Gb mirrored partition on it.

So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to work but
left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried to 'repair' windows
by going back to the master disk with service pack one, which has a
'repair' option at installation. However, it just logs you on but
doesn't appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it to
repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I tried then, but
didn't do anything drastic. However I ended up with the drives just
booting part way into windows and then stopping at the same point each
time.

So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of reinstalling
windows and all my applications again on one of the drives after
removing it from the mirror, then copy all 'my documents' across by
having the other ex-mirrored drive as a spare drive, until all that was
done and then rebuild the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything
in the program files directory, but when I try to access documents
belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old configuration, it
says "access denied". I've set up the same user profile and password on
the new installation, so how do I get at the old 'my documents' folder
when I can't boot directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only
person who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?

Mike Hersee

 

[Nepatsfan]

I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade
the drives, so replaced both of them one at a time,
rebuilding the mirror, so that I ended up with a mirrored
drive that would have much bigger capacity. Unfortunately,
the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand the
size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I
ended up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb
but with only a 40Gb mirrored partition on it.

So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to
work but left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried
to 'repair' windows by going back to the master disk with
service pack one, which has a 'repair' option at
installation. However, it just logs you on but doesn't
appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it
to repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I
tried then, but didn't do anything drastic. However I ended
up with the drives just booting part way into windows and
then stopping at the same point each time.

So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of
reinstalling windows and all my applications again on one of
the drives after removing it from the mirror, then copy all
'my documents' across by having the other ex-mirrored drive
as a spare drive, until all that was done and then rebuild
the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything in the
program files directory, but when I try to access documents
belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old
configuration, it says "access denied". I've set up the same
user profile and password on the new installation, so how do
I get at the old 'my documents' folder when I can't boot
directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only person
who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?

Mike Hersee

You need to take ownership of the files. Take a look here for
the procedure:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

Note: If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you
must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an
account that has Administrative rights to have access to the
Security tab. To start in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your
keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Nepatsfan]

Thank you Nepatsfan. I discovered by a painful process of
trial and error that the XP installation on my old drive was
obviously sufficiently corrupted that it would not complete
booting by itself, but the reason it suddenly decided to
start booting again was because I was booting it with my new
XP drive accessible. Windows was taking some of its settings
and info from the old drive, and very naughtily, some from
the new drive, and allowing it to complete booting. But by
doing so it was also corrupting my XP installation on my new
drive, so when I booted from that instead, I had lost
critical information and data that was not being remembered
when I repeatedly booted from the new drive. I had to use
system restore to retrieve things so that they worked
properly again. This is clearly very bad behaviour by
windows XP that it allows things to happen this way. And
before you ask, I have every official update going and
nothing fancy extra.

I have now recovered most of my data and just have some
other things to get that I didn't get the first time. Thanks
for pointing me in the right direction.

Mike Hersee

Glad to hear you're making progress.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[herseem]

In (e-mail address removed) herseem wrote:
I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade
the drives, so replaced both of them one at a time,
rebuilding the mirror, so that I ended up with a mirrored
drive that would have much bigger capacity. Unfortunately,
the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand the
size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I
ended up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb
but with only a 40Gb mirrored partition on it.

So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to
work but left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried
to 'repair' windows by going back to the master disk with
service pack one, which has a 'repair' option at
installation. However, it just logs you on but doesn't
appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it
to repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I
tried then, but didn't do anything drastic. However I ended
up with the drives just booting part way into windows and
then stopping at the same point each time.

So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of
reinstalling windows and all my applications again on one of
the drives after removing it from the mirror, then copy all
'my documents' across by having the other ex-mirrored drive
as a spare drive, until all that was done and then rebuild
the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything in the
program files directory, but when I try to access documents
belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old
configuration, it says "access denied". I've set up the same
user profile and password on the new installation, so how do
I get at the old 'my documents' folder when I can't boot
directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only person
who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?

Mike Hersee


--
herseem

You need to take ownership of the files. Take a look here for
the procedu

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://tinyurl.com/3aw7

Note: If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you
must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an
account that has Administrative rights to have access to the
Security tab. To start in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your
keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

Thank you Nepatsfan. I discovered by a painful process of trial an
error that the XP installation on my old drive was obviousl
sufficiently corrupted that it would not complete booting by itself
but the reason it suddenly decided to start booting again was because
was booting it with my new XP drive accessible. Windows was taking som
of its settings and info from the old drive, and very naughtily, som
from the new drive, and allowing it to complete booting. But by doin
so it was also corrupting my XP installation on my new drive, so when
booted from that instead, I had lost critical information and data tha
was not being remembered when I repeatedly booted from the new drive.
had to use system restore to retrieve things so that they worke
properly again. This is clearly very bad behaviour by windows XP tha
it allows things to happen this way. And before you ask, I have ever
official update going and nothing fancy extra.

I have now recovered most of my data and just have some other things t
get that I didn't get the first time. Thanks for pointing me in th
right direction.

Mike Herse