Retrieving Documents and Settings data when XP/NTFS denies access.

[fgdfhfgd]

A Western Digital SATA (system)drive suddenly failed SMART and I replaced
it and re-installed everything. Chkdsk attempts to fix it but always gets
stuck at a certain point.

When attached as another internal drive or hooked up via USB I can see and
managed to retrieve everything else I needed on the drive. However, my
(admin) account, within Documents and Settings, is reported as not
accessible - access denied.

I have a lot of pictures etc on there and was hoping there was some way I
can bypass this and retrieve them.

I've tried everything I can think of and believe it's a Windows XP / NTFS
thing. Can I convert it to FAT and then get these files?

Any help greatly appreciated,

Tony

 

[Thomas Wendell]

As you re-installed everything (clean install of XP ?) your user credentials
are different than those on the old disk..
You have to take ownership of that whole directory tree (<X>:\Documents and
Settings\<username>
(RClick->Sharing and security->Security Tab->Advanced->Owner tab )




--
Tumppi
=================================
A lot learned from these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================

 

[fgdfhfgd]

As you re-installed everything (clean install of XP ?) your user
credentials are different than those on the old disk..
You have to take ownership of that whole directory tree
(<X>:\Documents and Settings\<username>
(RClick->Sharing and security->Security Tab->Advanced->Owner tab )

Thanks for your response,

When I right click I do have Sharing and Security, but within that window
there's no Security Tab, just General, Sharing and Customize.

In General, Read-only is checked, I can uncheck it (and apply the changes
to this folder, subfolder and files) but it always returns to Read-only and
the contents are always unavailable - access denied.

How do I get to this "owner tab"?

Thanks again for your help.

Tony

 

[Gotde T Shirt]

Thanks for your response,

When I right click I do have Sharing and Security, but within that window
there's no Security Tab, just General, Sharing and Customize.

In General, Read-only is checked, I can uncheck it (and apply the changes
to this folder, subfolder and files) but it always returns to Read-only and
the contents are always unavailable - access denied.

How do I get to this "owner tab"?

Details about taking ownership of files and folders can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[Arno Wagner]

A Western Digital SATA (system)drive suddenly failed SMART and I replaced
it and re-installed everything. Chkdsk attempts to fix it but always gets
stuck at a certain point.

I assume you are talking about the defective drive?

When attached as another internal drive or hooked up via USB I can see and
managed to retrieve everything else I needed on the drive. However, my
(admin) account, within Documents and Settings, is reported as not
accessible - access denied.

I have a lot of pictures etc on there and was hoping there was some way I
can bypass this and retrieve them.

I've tried everything I can think of and believe it's a Windows XP / NTFS
thing. Can I convert it to FAT and then get these files?

I think NTFS->FAT is not possible.

Any help greatly appreciated,

First, make an image backup of the whole drive. It could fail
while you are messing with it.

Second, maybe making an additional image copy of the drive
to a healthy drive will let you log in just as you did with the
old drive.

Arno

 

[fgdfhfgd]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

Thank you so much, guys, it worked.

What I had to do was disable simple file sharing and then I could see the
security tab.

I recovered my files and *really* appreciate your help.

Tony