I am in the similar situation as BK. But as my "My Documents" folder was on a
completely separate hard drive, I didn't think I had to back them up: I
thought that all my files would be safe and still accessible after
reinstalling XP Pro!
But, although I have managed to move most of my files out of My Documents
folder onto my main hard drive prior to getting a new PC and scrapping my
smaller HDD, there are still certain file types that I get "Access Denied" on
when I try to copy or move them across. These are all pdf and wordpad files.
If I had KNOWN they wouldn't be accessible, I WOULD have backed them up - or
moved them all onto my main hard drive! But judging by all the cries for help
for similar "access denied" problems, there are obviously plenty of other
people who didn't know about this major pitfall either.
I have tried following the instructions in the Microsoft article on "How to
Take Ownership of a File" at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/308421/en-us. But unless I have
missed something or I am just completely stupid, it didn't resolve my
problem! So I have no idea how I am ever going to gain access to these files
again?
