Member Avatar for tomcruise3230

I have a Seagate Internal HD where i have "windows xp" installed that isn't working properly due to shock however i can still turn it on but it only shows up a blank black screen and doesn't go no where. So i had to put it in an external enclosure with my other "windows xp" PC . Doing that I can access folders like "programs" and "windows" and "guest documents" however what i cannot do is try to go inside the owner/admistrator folder because i get the message "access denied- this folder is unaccessible". When i go to "properities" it says it has 0 bytes however when i click on the "hard drive icon" itself it says it does have almost all the 120 GB I have saved on the administrators account. I already tried running it on safe mode but it just restarts over and over and doesn't go through.

So please tell me how can I possibly recover files (only want to recover few very important documents only) where windows is installed and I am not getting premission to check the "owner/adminstrators" folder and documents.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gurukid22

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Short expert summary and next steps based on the thread: has a shock-hit XP disk in an external enclosure. Explorer shows the drive is mostly full but the Administrator/Owner profile folder reports 0 bytes and gives "Access denied." 's GUI ownership change was tried and did not fix it. That pattern fits either NTFS metadata corruption or encryption/ACL issues — but the immediate priority is to avoid further write activity and protect the data.

Make a full sector image before any repair. A resilient cloning tool (live Linux + GNU ddrescue) is recommended because it copes with bad sectors and creates a log for later retries. Example (run from a Linux rescue USB, adjust device and paths):

sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /mnt/backup/disk.img /mnt/backup/disk.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /mnt/backup/disk.img /mnt/backup/disk.log

Details: GNU ddrescue.

After imaging, try two approaches on the image (never work on the original disk again). If files are not EFS-encrypted, mount the image under Linux and copy files as root to bypass Windows ACLs. If the files are EFS-encrypted they will remain unreadable without the user�s private key/certificate from the original profile (those keys live in the user profile crypto store and must be recovered to decrypt).

If permission changes are still desired on a Windows host, use command-line ownership/ACL reset on a newer Windows machine:

takeown /F "E:\Documents and Settings\Administrator" /R /D Y
icacls "E:\Documents and Settings\Administrator" /grant Administrators:F /T

See Microsoft docs for takeown and icacls: takeown / icacls.

If NTFS metadata is damaged, TestDisk can attempt MFT/partition repair and PhotoRec can carve files (loss of filenames likely). See TestDisk/PhotoRec. If the disk shows mechanical failure (clicking, many I/O errors) stop and consult a professional data‑recovery service — treatment then must be hardware-level.

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Member Avatar for gurukid22

You need to take ownership of the file first.

To do this you must be logged into the machine you are using as the administartor.

Then right click the folder and select properties > security > advanced.

Select the OWNER tab click edit select administrators check the check box to replace owner on all subfolder then click apply ok and ok;

If this works you may need to replicate these setting to all sub folder so you dont have to repeat this task on each folder.

Member Avatar for tomcruise3230

You need to take ownership of the file first.

To do this you must be logged into the machine you are using as the administartor.

Then right click the folder and select properties > security > advanced.

Select the OWNER tab click edit select administrators check the check box to replace owner on all subfolder then click apply ok and ok;

If this works you may need to replicate these setting to all sub folder so you dont have to repeat this task on each folder.

I have tried this but still get the message ""access denied- owner folder is unaccessible". So it must be something else. I believe because of shock the owner folder documents are unaccessible but the others folder can get still into.

Please suggest me on what other method I should try?

Member Avatar for gurukid22

If that's the case im not sure what this could be or what to do. You check that the folder is not encrypted and that you are logged in as the administrator and the real administrator not the visit admin attribute.

im not sure if this will help but good luck.

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