Help I broke my friends PC

[Guest]

The machine had win 98 (the original, not 2nd ed.), then he bought a new
mother board and processor only, plugged the same HD and it seemed to work,
kind of. Basically there were so many intermittent errors, like you could
not make a new folder in the save as dialog box, and other weird annoying
stuff like that. At some point someone else ran partition magic and split
his c drive into a c and d drive (c=15 gig, d=5 gig, why that config, I
don't know)
So I come along and convince him buy win xp home upgrade, which he did. So
here is what happened.
I ran the setup from within win 98. It loaded the set up files and
rebooted. Since it was win 98 both the c & d drive were fat32.
When the dos looking setup screen started after boot up, it only asked me if
I wanted to quick format the D drive only, in either fat32 or ntfs, or
complete format in fat32 or ntfs or leave it alone (5 options). Well the D
drive is where I stored all their data like their kids pictures, so of
course I said leave it alone, but it never asked me the same options for the
c drive. So after I said leave it alone, it proceeded to load the OS on the
d drive, never letting me stop or select a folder to store windows in. I
expected the choice of over writing c:\windows or selecting another folder,
but no choices after I said leave it alone. So to make a long story a
little shorter, it loaded perfectly on the d drive and after reboot, the
boot.ini rightfully gave me the option to boot into xp home or "Microsoft
Windows" (funny how it doesn't refer to Win98).
Now silly me decided to edit the boot ini file and delete many of the old
files that I THOUGHT were only needed for win98 (like autoexec.bat, ...)
So I ended deleting too many files off of the c root and now when I
reboot it says NTLR or something like that is missing.
So I was able to boot from the cd and try to repair, but each time it asks
for the administrator password (which I never set one, and I only added mom
and dad as users, not admin), I hit enter and it just brings me to the dos
prompt (d:\windows). Every folder I try to change to says access denied.
Is there a way to load any files back on the c drive and if so which files
do I need. Or can I get into the recycle bin and copy the files back on the
c drive? Right now it says access is denied. My friend and his wife don't
care about
the fact its backwards (windows and programs on d and personal data on c,
there is 15 gig on c and 5 gig on d, so it can work backwards).
Thanks for any help and sorry for the long story.
gv

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

First, perform a repair install as follows. If after the repair install you
are unable to access the files, something you will need to do from within
Windows, you will need to take ownership of the files with the instructions
following the repair install instructions below:

Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to enter
the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually has
instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence. Save
your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will reboot.

NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to start
over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed up,
you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.

Boot from the CD. If your system is set to be able to boot from the CD, it
should detect the disk and give a brief message, during the boot up, if you
wish to boot from the CD press any key.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

File Ownership:

This sounds like a file ownership issue related to NTFS. Note, file
ownership and permissions supersede administrator rights. How you resolve
it depends upon which version of XP you are running.



XP-Home



Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple File
Sharing" at system level.

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode. Reboot, and start
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of the
options is Safe Mode. Select it. Note, it will ask for the administrator's
password. This is not your administrator account, rather it is the
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create a
password during setup.

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and press
enter.

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll to
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect it
and click apply and ok. If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change,
move on to the next step.

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Security
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logged
on when you were refused permission to access the files. Click apply and
ok. Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name of
the user you just enabled. If you wish to set ownership for everything in
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection:
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well.

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files when
you log back on as that user.



XP-Pro



If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account to
administrative. First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folder
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is not
selected. If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok.



If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user,
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, click
Advanced, go to the Owner tab,
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, you
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,"
place a check in the box and click apply and ok.

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in the
folder even as a limited account. If not, make it an admin account again,
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and be
sure the user is listed in the user list. If not, click add and type the
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessary
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click apply
and ok.

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder even
in a limited account.

 

[PopRivet]

Is there any way you can remove the HD's and install
them into another working machine? That should allow
you to get the data off them, store it, reformat them,
and put 98 or XP or 98 then XP if it's an upgrade, back
on.
Whether a drive is Master or Slave is usually a
jumper setting on the drive, sometimes on the MB, and
occasionally might be something in CMOS ram, so check
the docu if you don't kinow what yoj're doing.

Pop

Always RTFM when you can!
<gv> wrote in message
| The machine had win 98 (the original, not 2nd ed.),
then he bought a new
| mother board and processor only, plugged the same HD
and it seemed to work,
| kind of. Basically there were so many intermittent
errors, like you could
| not make a new folder in the save as dialog box, and
other weird annoying
| stuff like that. At some point someone else ran
partition magic and split
| his c drive into a c and d drive (c=15 gig, d=5 gig,
why that config, I
| don't know)
| So I come along and convince him buy win xp home
upgrade, which he did. So
| here is what happened.
| I ran the setup from within win 98. It loaded the
set up files and
| rebooted. Since it was win 98 both the c & d drive
were fat32.
| When the dos looking setup screen started after boot
up, it only asked me if
| I wanted to quick format the D drive only, in either
fat32 or ntfs, or
| complete format in fat32 or ntfs or leave it alone (5
options). Well the D
| drive is where I stored all their data like their
kids pictures, so of
| course I said leave it alone, but it never asked me
the same options for the
| c drive. So after I said leave it alone, it
proceeded to load the OS on the
| d drive, never letting me stop or select a folder to
store windows in. I
| expected the choice of over writing c:\windows or
selecting another folder,
| but no choices after I said leave it alone. So to
make a long story a
| little shorter, it loaded perfectly on the d drive
and after reboot, the
| boot.ini rightfully gave me the option to boot into
xp home or "Microsoft
| Windows" (funny how it doesn't refer to Win98).
| Now silly me decided to edit the boot ini file and
delete many of the old
| files that I THOUGHT were only needed for win98 (like
autoexec.bat, ...)
| So I ended deleting too many files off of the c root
and now when I
| reboot it says NTLR or something like that is
missing.
| So I was able to boot from the cd and try to repair,
but each time it asks
| for the administrator password (which I never set
one, and I only added mom
| and dad as users, not admin), I hit enter and it just
brings me to the dos
| prompt (d:\windows). Every folder I try to change to
says access denied.
| Is there a way to load any files back on the c drive
and if so which files
| do I need. Or can I get into the recycle bin and
copy the files back on the
| c drive? Right now it says access is denied. My
friend and his wife don't
| care about
| the fact its backwards (windows and programs on d and
personal data on c,
| there is 15 gig on c and 5 gig on d, so it can work
backwards).
| Thanks for any help and sorry for the long story.
| gv
|
|
|

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your time, I do appreciate it. Unfortunatley I wasn't able to go
into the repair section, it kept kicking me out to dos.
So I took the machine back to my place and put the hard drive in my box and
backed up the files, and start with new partitions.
Thanks again.

 

[Guest]

Yea, I wanted to avoid that, but I couldn't.
Thanks for your time.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You're welcome, sorry I wasn't more help, good luck.

 

[Guest]

go into each folder do a right click of the mouse on each folder you want to copy and change the attributes from read only files, click on apply and you'll be able to copy the folder. You may need to do this on each folder. Milt