Drives inaccessible - security settings wiped out

[SKS]

I did something jolly stupid last evening on an older PC (WinXP-Pro SP2):-
While attempting to reset permissions of multiple drives I inadvertently
clicked on "OK" to reset existing permissions on all the three drives on
that PC and....... to make it short: now none of the drives are accessible.
Every single item on the Start Menu refuses to run and the PC will not boot
up, even in Safe Mode - keeps rebooting from the logo screen. I already took
out the drives to hook them up to my current PC in order to reset the
Security Settings and retrieve certain document and media files.

Can I take Ownership of the drives while they are connected (one at a time)
to another PC through USB2? And, thereafter, can I add back the
Administrator, System, Owner, etc., accounts in the "groups and user names"
settings, and allot their respective rights? Is there a file (hidden?) on
every drive that stores the Security Settings that can be backed up for any
such eventuality in the future?

I'd certainly appreciate any pointers very much before I try to do do what I
outlined here!

Regards and thanks a lot in advance.

SKS

 

[Galen]

In SKS <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I did something jolly stupid last evening on an older PC (WinXP-Pro
SP2):- While attempting to reset permissions of multiple drives I
inadvertently clicked on "OK" to reset existing permissions on all
the three drives on that PC and....... to make it short: now none of
the drives are accessible. Every single item on the Start Menu
refuses to run and the PC will not boot up, even in Safe Mode - keeps
rebooting from the logo screen. I already took out the drives to hook
them up to my current PC in order to reset the Security Settings and
retrieve certain document and media files.
Can I take Ownership of the drives while they are connected (one at a
time) to another PC through USB2? And, thereafter, can I add back the
Administrator, System, Owner, etc., accounts in the "groups and user
names" settings, and allot their respective rights? Is there a file
(hidden?) on every drive that stores the Security Settings that can
be backed up for any such eventuality in the future?

I'd certainly appreciate any pointers very much before I try to do do
what I outlined here!

Regards and thanks a lot in advance.

SKS

"Jolly stupid." I like that. Yes you can take ownership of the drives (and I
recommend you do) and backup your data. From there you MIGHT be able to get
away with a repair installation. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) But it
seems to me that a repair install would be your ticket and from there you
may need to take ownership once again. Seeing as you know how to do that
then I'll share the repair installation link.

How to perform an inplace upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

Galen
--

"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my ability
with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the
very first thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest hobby."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[SKS]

Hi Galen,

Thanks for the response. I did take ownership of the three drives as well as
assign groups and user rights. I also backed up the data files. Then the
weirdest thing happened :-

I put back just the system drive on the original machine and it booted back
up perfectly as if nothing had happened! It only came up with the suggestion
that I reboot to get all hardware operating again after being "installed". I
rebooted and then shut down and put the other two drives back. Again it
booted up as it always had earlier! Except I had to reassign drive letters
for the additional drives.

I did not even have to do any repair install at all. I figured that the
owner, registered user, registered company, and other user data were
identical to my new machine - that must have done the trick when I
reassigned user rights after taking ownership during the temporary hook-up.
I checked the Security settings and they were right where they were before I
messed them up inadvertently last evening! This time I immediately created a
Ghost image on my regular USB2 back-up drive, just in case.

As Sherlock Holmes would say to Watson - "Curious!" Or am I quoting Dr.
Spock?

Regards and thanks for the encouragement.

SKS