Xp reinstall locked my documents

[Kanoisa]

Hi guys,

Basically in my system i use 2 drives one soley for dev work and applications the other for storing media .exe's etc etc. I put my "my documents" folder on my storage drive (preaptly named s:) But since i reformatted c:/ when i try to acces my documents on s: it says access is denied and now i cant get a couple of files i need.

Does anyone know a way i can get access back to the folder or at least recover the files and remove it?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

[scottydog12]

was or is the drive or file password protected or can you gain access to most of the other files on the s drive ??

[Kanoisa]

I had no form of any protection on it, and i can access everything else perfectly only my documents is locked, i thought maybe its something to do with how it wont let other users view each others documents but im the only user of my pc.

I think maybe cause its a reinstall i thinks im someone else so it wont let me in,..

Any idea how to get around that?

[gerbil]

This is a standard post I use... you must be an XP Pro user; substitute S: for C:...
All you need to do as an administrator is to take control of those folders/files. If you go to C:\Documents and Settings you should still see your old profile named there. User profiles are given a unique Security Identifier. So even if on a new installation you create a user with the same name the account will not have the same SID. My Documents folder is a special Windows folder; it is related to the owner by SID. So if you can see it under C:\ you can take possession of it [if XP Pro] by using the Security tab in Properties. If XP Home just copy the contents to your own My Docs, and delete the original folder - it does not belong to any user now.

[Kanoisa]

Ok I checked in control pannel i got xp home sp3, My main drive is drive c: and has my windows install, the reason i moved it to s: was tht i had hoped that in the event of a reformat like this i could keep my documents folder as its well sorted.

I cant access the folder edit delete or anything, whatever i can try i get access denied. My account is as admin, so unless there is some hackers mathod to get around the SID for the folder as you suggest (i had assumed some kind of id code securing it) then i cant get the files then can i?

The accounts i can see in C:\Documents and Settings is my account(Rab) default user and all users.

Thanks for the help

[gerbil]

So it's not password protected .. did you actually Move the My Documents folder on the old installation, or is this a copy of it you are try ing to access? From a cmd window can you do a dir on that S: drive, see the files?
Can you do this to take Ownership?: Because you have XP Home, restart in Safe mode [you must in order to get the Security tab on folders to appear], log on with an account that has administrative rights. Rclick a folder on the drive, select properties, > security tab, > advanced tab, click owner, click edit, click your user name in the list [or Administrator] and check Replace owner on subcontainers and object, and Ok. Answer Yes to the question regarding replacing permissions.

[Kanoisa]

That worked and i got my files (at least on the admin account i cant get my normal account to access it but i only needed a couple things took em and wiped it job done :)

Thanks for your help your a genious :)