Locked Folders

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Tomlinson
  • Start date Start date
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David Tomlinson

The other day day one of my siblings decided to play with the Windows XP
recovery CD and managed to stop anybody from getting to the logon screen.
All you got was 'Windows is not fully installed' in a dialogue box. So I did
a non-destructive recovery, twice, which didn't work. Then I moved up the
recoery ladder and did the middle one which 'Reinstalls windows but deletes
all installed programmes. The previous state of the C drive is saved into a
new folder'. This worked - but I had to setup all the user accounts again.
From my new user account I can get into everybody elses old ones - so I can
recover their old documents etc - but not my own. It was the top account and
it says access is denied. I really need to either get into this file or
import the entire thing into the current user accounts setup. Any ideas?
 
Hi David,

You need to take ownership of them. Right-click the folder, select
properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. You can take control
of the folders on the owner tab. For the security tab to appear in a WinXP
Pro system, you must disable simple file sharing in the control panel/folder
options/view tab. For a WinXP Home system, you must restart in safe mode and
logon as administrator. More details here:

HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

An additional note for WinXP Pro users: This procedure will not help you
recover data if the files are encrypted. All you will be able to do is
delete them. To recover encrypted files you will need the original
encryption certificate or a Recovery Agent from the installation under which
they were encrypted. Without one of these, the files are not recoverable.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
David Tomlinson said:
The other day day one of my siblings decided to play with the Windows XP
recovery CD and managed to stop anybody from getting to the logon screen.
All you got was 'Windows is not fully installed' in a dialogue box. So I did
a non-destructive recovery, twice, which didn't work. Then I moved up the
recoery ladder and did the middle one which 'Reinstalls windows but deletes
all installed programmes. The previous state of the C drive is saved into a
new folder'. This worked - but I had to setup all the user accounts again.
From my new user account I can get into everybody elses old ones - so I can
recover their old documents etc - but not my own. It was the top account and
it says access is denied. I really need to either get into this file or
import the entire thing into the current user accounts setup. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Try booting into Safe Mode (tap the F8 key about twice per second during a
reboot to get the menu) and log on as Administrator. That should provide the
needed privileges. If you have XP Pro then, if necessary, you can go take
ownership of the folder structure of concern:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;268019&Product=win2000
(although written for W2K, it's basically applicable to XP Pro too)
 
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