Ten-
I am going to presume two things:
1) You are running XP Pro;
2) You _had_ - before the reinstall - simple file sharing turned OFF
It is very likely that the remaining un-reformated volumes (which you called
logical drives, both terms are correct and somewhat appropriate but in this
instance at this point you should think of it in terms of being a disk
volume) access rights are based on the SID of the prior WinXP install's
Administrator account (e.g. it may be called Administrator, but each time you
install XP a new SecurityIDentifier is generated for each login account, and
that's what XP actually uses in the security token that is reviewd when
access is requested to any objcect: the SID _not_ the account name; however,
there is a minor exception to this as regards to object ownership when
AdministratorS is the owner - more details below.
It is relatively easy to correct:
Open your favorite Windows GUI (My Computer or Explorer or IE) and navigate
to the disk voluem in question (let's say drive M:\...)
Right-click the M:\-drive icon and select Sharing and Security (or
Properties if that selection is not visible for some reason);
Click on the Security Tab
Click the Advanced button in lower-rgt region of Security window
Click on the Ownership tab
Select either the Administrator account or Administrators account as the new
owner (read notes below before completing this procedure from this step on)
Check the replace owner on subfolders box in lower-left area of this window
Do NOT click OK just yet (unless you want to make it a two-step process; you
won't hurt anything by clicking OK/Apply now, it is just a time-saver to wait
at this point - but if you do want to two-step this, click Apply here not OK
- there are considerations to be made, again see notes below): Click on the
Permissions tab
Review the listed permissions configuration and adjust as desired
Click OK
Notes:
If you want just The Administrator to OWN the volume that's fine. There is a
slight downside to that and that is if you do reformat/reinstall again, you
will have to repeat this exercise all over as the Administrator SID will be
assigned as the Object's Owner and not the Administrors Group.
In XP, when the Administrators GROUP is assigned as the owner, then even
after a reinstall and all SIDs get recreated, Objects that _were_ owned by
and accessible to the old Administrators group are _still_ owned by and
accessible to the NEW Administrators group. This business of reapplying
ownership is moot.
Sometimes, depending on how the permissions were setup on the volume
_before_ you reinstalled XP (especially on subdirectories underneath where
inheritance was turned off and a new set of permissions set at that level) in
order for all the permissions to work or get reset properly, you get the
results you want by Applying the ownership change BEFORE changing any of the
Permission entries on that tab, and then APPLYing/OKing the Permissions
changes as well. But, if all you want to do is establish the base
permissions on the root of the volume and then utilize inheritance to
propgate those permissions throughout the tree below, then there is no need
to APPLY Ownership separate from Permissions, you can save the time it will
take XP to reapply your new settings by configuring the Permissions entries
after the Ownership before clicking APPLY/OK.
You'll need to go thru this exercise for each of your disk drive volumes
(logical drives).
Then.... everything should be fine!
Good luck, and Happy New Year!
