Locked "My Documents" folder

  • Thread starter Thread starter W. G. Davis
  • Start date Start date
W

W. G. Davis

I was forced to replace my "C" drive with a new one. I had backed up "My
Documents", Outlook Express, Favorites, Cookies and Address Book to my
secondary drives. These were all NTFS.

The new drive installed as FAT32 because I had to install WinME first and
then upgrade to XP. Now I cannot do anything with the backups. I get an
"Access Denied" error. I cannot move them, copy them, open them. I need
help here as I have some important documents.

Ideally, I'd like to get the new "C" drive in NTFS as well. But I would
settle for returning all the drives to FAT32.

Is it possible to revert the NTFS drives to FAT32 without losing everything
on it?

Is there a way to rescue my documents, and other backed up files?

Are these two problems related?

Thanks in advance for any help provided.


--
Regards,

W. G. Jeff Davis
(e-mail address removed)
"If there is one thing upon this earth that
mankind love and admire better than another,
it is a brave man, -- it is the man who dares
to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil."
-- James A. Garfield
 
Hi,

Assuming you use same login name and password after the clean ME + XP
install.
Access is based upon an internally calculated Security ID.
Even when reusing same name and password, a different SID wil be calculated.

My idea would be, add yourself as administrator access member.
Right click the top folder, select Security and Sharing, add 'Administrator'
(assuming you are administrator) as accessible member. Grant yourself
Full Control and update this property to All Folders, Subfolder and Files
below.
(see Advanced options).

HTH,
John7
 
"Top folder"?


John7 said:
Hi,

Assuming you use same login name and password after the clean ME + XP
install.
Access is based upon an internally calculated Security ID.
Even when reusing same name and password, a different SID wil be calculated.

My idea would be, add yourself as administrator access member.
Right click the top folder, select Security and Sharing, add 'Administrator'
(assuming you are administrator) as accessible member. Grant yourself
Full Control and update this property to All Folders, Subfolder and Files
below.
(see Advanced options).

HTH,
John7
Click to expand...
 
'Top folder' is the first folder (or even the drive itself) you encounter on
your backup drive.

John7
 
W. G. Davis said:
I was forced to replace my "C" drive with a new one. I had backed up "My
Documents", Outlook Express, Favorites, Cookies and Address Book to my
secondary drives. These were all NTFS.

The new drive installed as FAT32 because I had to install WinME first and
then upgrade to XP.
Click to expand...

No, you didnt have to do that. You can install XP straight from the CD even
though it is only an UPGRADE. At some point it will ask you to put in a
valid older version of Windows to confirm you are allowed to update. Do that
and then it tells you to put XP back in and away it goes happily.
Now I cannot do anything with the backups. I get an
"Access Denied" error. I cannot move them, copy them, open them. I need
help here as I have some important documents.
Click to expand...

That would be because you dont "own" the second drive any longer. If you
have XP HOME, you have to boot safe mode and then go to properties for that
drive and Security and allow yourself to have access. With XP Pro you can do
it without rebooting.
Ideally, I'd like to get the new "C" drive in NTFS as well. But I would
settle for returning all the drives to FAT32.
Click to expand...

The CONVERT command from START/RUN will do that for you.
Is it possible to revert the NTFS drives to FAT32 without losing everything
on it?
Click to expand...

Yes but you will have to buy Partition Magic 7 or greater.
Is there a way to rescue my documents, and other backed up files?
Click to expand...

As stated above re security.
 
Unnamed said:
No, you didnt have to do that. You can install XP straight from the CD even
though it is only an UPGRADE. At some point it will ask you to put in a
valid older version of Windows to confirm you are allowed to update. Do that
and then it tells you to put XP back in and away it goes happily.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Maybe that's what I need to do.

That would be because you dont "own" the second drive any longer. If you
have XP HOME, you have to boot safe mode and then go to properties for that
drive and Security and allow yourself to have access. With XP Pro you can do
it without rebooting.
Click to expand...

There are only two users for this PC, The Administrator and myself. Both
have administrator's rights. I tried doing the top folder, and I tried just
doing the "My Documents" folder. Closest I could get was to try allow
sharing...and I got the Access Denied error. I have XP Pro.
 
Hi,

In essence, the second paragraph of 'Unnamed's subthread is identical to my
method.
Well, you didn't tell which XP you use : Home or Professional.
Usually the method works, only the way to login as administrator differs.
In Home, restart, press F8, enter Safe Mode, login as administrator ....
In Professional, logoff into login screen, make sure nothing is highlighted
(move mouse into a corner), press CTL-ALT-DEL twice, login as
administrator...
For the rest, proceed as described earlier.

HTH,
John7
 
Type taking ownership in help.

You are a different user on every install. Therefore the users who have access no longer exist cause you reinstalled. Users are long randomly generated numbers, not the display name.
 
Most people own an older Windows anyway.


Some people have OEM versions of ME that aren't recognised by XP as ME
disks.
 
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