Win XP - Restored, Win made awkard "Owner" Account

[Clueless]

I seem to have an awkward problem today with Windows XP. The system
wouldn't reboot, and my wife tried a "repair" - this failed, so she did
a system restore.

With the restore most data and applications are still on the PC. The
drive letters got renamed. And the appearance/settings/screensaver are
all windows defaults.

The main issue we have is the "Owner" directory is no longer
accessible. I can view through Explore, but cannot enter the
directory. The directory is:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner

It appears Windows created a new Owner-user directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520

I cannot access the older "Owner" directory and therefore have lost key

information stored there like Outlook Express files.


Any ideas to be able to get access to that folder?


Thanks,
Doug.

 

[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-

 

[Thota Umesh]

Go to folder options from explorer tools menu scroll down & deselect "enable
"simple sharing"

now go to locked out files rightclick properties security tab will appear
go,

then go to advanced option select owner, now select "replace owner on
subcontainers and objects" and enter this will replace ownership and give u
full control.

remember depending on no of files in ur secured folder the process will take
some time to replace all permissions.

Or Read this :
How To Take Ownership of a File or Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

After doing this u wud be able to access ur files but not access into ur
files and settings to do this create a new user and copy the application
data folders present in the documents and settings\user\ folder and
documents and settings\user\localsettings that shd fix ur problems.

Hope this helps...,
Umesh Thota.
www.windowsworkshop.com

 

[Clueless]

Thanks - the above has worked.

Does anyone have an idea why Windows was no longer able to access the
"Owner" directory and we were forced to do the repair/restore route?
Is it a hardware or software problem, or a virus?


Thanks,
Doug.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Doug;
The directory was made private on the previous installation.
Even though you reinstalled and even if you used the same name and password
it is seen as a different user and thus access is denied the unknown user.
Taking Ownership returns access.
Is a windows issue and is not a problem at all, it is by design.

 

[Clueless]

Thanks - But this isn't explaining why Windows forced my to reinstall?
Does anyone know why the problem occurred in the first place?

Now I am stuck with two "owner" directories:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520

And some applications use "Owner" as the identity - so its getting
ugly... ...not to say the least that iTunes won't work - and I cannot
reinstall it.


Thanks.

 

[Clueless]

Thanks - But this isn't explaining why Windows forced my to reinstall?
Does anyone know why the problem occurred in the first place?

Now I am stuck with two "owner" directories:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520

And some applications use "Owner" as the identity - so its getting
ugly... ...not to say the least that iTunes won't work - and I cannot
reinstall it.


Thanks.

 

[Thota Umesh]

Hii, ur user profile might have been corrupted and not for u to loose any
additional data windows restored ur account with a new user profile folder
from its last restore points.

As told earlier once u gained access to the earlier denited folders copy the
folders application data or subfolders in that which are related to the
applications installed this hd fix ur itunes problem too.

Although it is possible that the problem is due to missing registry data
rather than the profile folder related issue as the system was restored.
just chech event viewer for error details. (type eventvwr.msc in start menu

run)

Hope this helps...,
Umesh Thota
www.windowsworkshop.com

 

[Clueless]

OK - thanks for the help. I have a few questions. Since I now have
the two "owner" directories I get some weird behaviours. The two
directories are:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520

When turning on the PC - the only user gets the "Desktop" as defined in
the "Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520" directory. But when using applications to
say download to the desktop, most of the time the applications save the
file to the "Owner" desktop.

Does anyone have an idea of a solution for this? I doubt I can delete
the old pre-restore directory of "Owner" and then move/rename
"Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520" to this place. This is because when I loggin
I'm thinking Windows will try to find the "Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520"
directory.

Can I use the Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> User Profiles
screen and the "Copy To" feature?


Thanks again,
Doug.

 

[Clueless]

OK - thanks for the help. I have a few questions. Since I now have
the two "owner" directories I get some weird behaviours. The two
directories are:
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520

When turning on the PC - the only user gets the "Desktop" as defined in
the "Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520" directory. But when using applications to
say download to the desktop, most of the time the applications save the
file to the "Owner" desktop.

Does anyone have an idea of a solution for this? I doubt I can delete
the old pre-restore directory of "Owner" and then move/rename
"Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520" to this place. This is because when I loggin
I'm thinking Windows will try to find the "Owner.YOUR-6JNHHU0520"
directory.

Can I use the Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> User Profiles
screen and the "Copy To" feature?


Thanks again,
Doug.

 

[Thota Umesh]

Hii, you can create another user account & copy "application data" folder
from ur old user profile folder to this new one i.e., if u have outlook or
other software settings configured and delete / discard the old two
accounts. would be more easy compared to trying operations that if not
perfomed correctly cud result you not being able to access ur system
anymore!

Hope this helps...,
Umesh Thota.
www.windowsworkshop.com