Accessing "Documents & Settings" in a previous Windows installation

  • Thread starter Thread starter AN O'Nymous
  • Start date Start date
A

AN O'Nymous

I recently bought a new 300GB HDD, and installed a fresh version of Win
XP there. I would like to copy the contents of my "Documents &
Settings" folder into my new hard drive...however, I get the error
message "Access Denied".

Is there any way around this? Thanks...
 
AN O'Nymous said:
I recently bought a new 300GB HDD, and installed a fresh version of Win
XP there. I would like to copy the contents of my "Documents &
Settings" folder into my new hard drive...however, I get the error
message "Access Denied".

Is there any way around this? Thanks...
Go to Start\Help, and type in file permission.
 
AN O'Nymous, 3/14/2006, 12:11:28 PM,
I recently bought a new 300GB HDD, and installed a fresh version of
Win XP there. I would like to copy the contents of my "Documents &
Settings" folder into my new hard drive...however, I get the error
message "Access Denied".

Is there any way around this? Thanks...

Right-click on the folder itself and select Security Tab. Add the
local administrator to the list of allowed users and give Full
permissions to him. You may need to log out and back in as
Administrator and hopefully the folder will be available to you. If
not there are other options available afterwards.
 
badgolferman said:
AN O'Nymous, 3/14/2006, 12:11:28 PM,


Right-click on the folder itself and select Security Tab. Add the
local administrator to the list of allowed users and give Full
permissions to him. You may need to log out and back in as
Administrator and hopefully the folder will be available to you. If
not there are other options available afterwards.

I'm logged in as the Administrator, but I can't see the Security tab.
 
You probably won't be able replace the files because they are in use by windows. You can boot with another windows installation e.g. on another drive or do another windows installation in a different directory to do the job.
 
You will most likely have to turn off "simple file sharing" to get access to
the NTFS file permissions.

To turn Simple File Sharing on or off in Windows XP Professional, follow
these steps:
1. Double-click My Computer on the desktop.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab, and then select the Use Simple File Sharing
(Recommended) check box to turn on Simple File Sharing. (Clear this check
box to turn off this feature.)

See this link for more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

And since the file permissions were created with a different GUID then you
will probably have to take ownership of the drive before you can change the
permissions.

How to take ownership of a folder (in your case you will probably do this
for the entire drive)

Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has
administrative credentials.

If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the
computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has
Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.

If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File
Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing when
it is not joined to a domain. (See above)

To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:
1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one
appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are
logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want
to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner
on subcontainers and objects check box.
5. Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message: You
do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you
want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full
Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Note folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership
of.

6. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you
want for the folder and its contents.

See here for more info: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421
 
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