File System Access

[Guest]

One of my PCs blew a power supply and fried the motherboard. I took out the
hard drive and plugged it into the alternate controller of another PC I have.
Windows XP Home recognizes the disk. But it will not let me browse to the
Documents and Setting directories where my personal data resides. It just
says "Access denied." How can I get access to the data so I can copy it onto
another disk?

 

[Larry Samuels]

Take ownership of the files.
If you are using XP Home you will need to boot to Safe mode and log in to an
account with Administrator privileges

To take ownership of a file or folder

Open Windows Explorer, and then locate the file or folder you want to take
ownership of.
Right-click the file or folder, click Properties, and then click the
Security tab.
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Change owner to box, click the new owner.
(Optional) To change the owner of all subcontainers and objects within the
tree, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Notes

To open Windows Explorer, click Start, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.
If you are not joined to a domain and want to view the Security tab, see To
display the Security tab.
You can transfer ownership in two ways:
The current owner can grant the Take ownership permission to others,
allowing those users to take ownership at any time.
An administrator can take ownership of any file on the computer. However,
the administrator cannot transfer ownership to others. This restriction
keeps the administrator accountable.
In Windows XP Professional, the Everyone group no longer includes the
Anonymous Logon group.


--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Guest]

Larry,

Thanks. But this didn't work. I tried to allow file sharing for the
folder, but, the
KB article tells me to use Contol Panel to change the file advanced setting
to uncheck the "Use simple file sharing" box. But there is no such option on
the file properties tab. When I select "Share this folder on the network"
from the "Network sharing and security" section of the "Sharing" tab of the
folder properties, the alert says "An error occured while trying to share
...." Access was denied. The shared resource was not created at this time."

Any other suggestions?

 

[Larry Samuels]

In XP home you must boot to safe mode and use the Administrator account to
change permissions.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-

 

[Jim]

Larry,

Thanks. But this didn't work. I tried to allow file sharing for the
folder, but, the
KB article tells me to use Contol Panel to change the file advanced
setting
to uncheck the "Use simple file sharing" box. But there is no such option
on
the file properties tab. When I select "Share this folder on the
network"
from the "Network sharing and security" section of the "Sharing" tab of
the
folder properties, the alert says "An error occured while trying to share
..." Access was denied. The shared resource was not created at this
time."

Any other suggestions?

In either Explorer or the control panel, you first select "folder options",
then you select "view". There you will find the box which enables/disable
simple file sharing. You do not do this through the file properties dialog.
Jim

 

[Guest]

A frequent cause of confusion here is between 'shared folders' - that is,
folders accessible tio several users of the same computer, and network shares
which are accessible from other computers. Simple File Sharing is part of
the latter, and has nothing to do with accessing files on an added disk.

The issue here is that the added disk's folders have filesystem-security on
them, and this security does not recognise the users of the present machine.

The solution, as mentioned, is to reboot into Safe Mode, log on as
Administrator. Then navigate to 'Documents and Settings' on the added disk,
and under its securty properties (right-click) forcibly take possesion
(ownership) of it and its subfolders.

You should then be able to add 'Everyone' (or a specific user) to the
rights of this folder-tree.

When you reboot as the normal user you should then have access to it.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ian and Larry. I didn't realize that Safe Mode was critical. Worked
like a champ. Thanks again.

 

[Larry Samuels]

You're very welcome.
The thanks really go to Ian for jumping in and giving a detailed explanation
while I was away.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone-