reset ntfs file permission/ownership

[zuckons]

I have a xp pro machine that was on a domain. When i accessed the
machine with the domain user I could read a file and even tried to
assign a local admin as the owner. But when I logged on as the local
admin i could not read the file. I removed the computer from the
domain and put in a workgroup and now I do not have access to word,
excel, pdf files from the old user. I have tried all the ms kb docs
on subinacl, xcalcs , etc but no luck. The owner is now a user with a
bunch of numbers (probably b/c i removed the computer from the
domain). Is there a tool that will help? I know I had a tool once
that booted to a linux command line that would reset a xp password.
strange that is it only doc, xls, pdf and not jpg files.

 

[Malke]

I have a xp pro machine that was on a domain. When i accessed the
machine with the domain user I could read a file and even tried to
assign a local admin as the owner. But when I logged on as the local
admin i could not read the file. I removed the computer from the
domain and put in a workgroup and now I do not have access to word,
excel, pdf files from the old user. I have tried all the ms kb docs
on subinacl, xcalcs , etc but no luck. The owner is now a user with a
bunch of numbers (probably b/c i removed the computer from the
domain). Is there a tool that will help? I know I had a tool once
that booted to a linux command line that would reset a xp password.
strange that is it only doc, xls, pdf and not jpg files.

I don't know why you aren't able to take ownership. Please review these
instructions to see if that's what you've done:

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

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm

The only reasons I can think of that taking ownership wouldn't work are:

1. The data was encrypted or otherwise password-protected (and the latter is
what it sounds like).
2. You're doing it wrong.

The Linux password reset utility that I believe you're thinking of is to
reset a user account's password and will not help you in this situation.
However, booting into a Linux rescue environment such as Knoppix and
copying the files to external media (and from there back to your new
Windows non-domain account) may work since Linux does not support Windows
permissions. Naturally this will be useless if the files are in fact
encrypted or password-protected. In that case you would need to remove the
encryption/password protection.

Malke