Member Avatar for Merlin33069

hello, this is a small tip or how to on the following

if you have ever crashed a computer namely xp, and wanted the data, have you ever thaught of just putting it as a slave on another computer?

well there is one problem with this, xp protects certain things in an administrator account, such as my documents, and often, the entire user folder in documents and settings, now here is the cool part

if you have ever came across this problem, there is a way around it, so if you can follow me, good

from an ADMINISTRATIVE account go to command prompt (start > run > cmd)

then type at

it should say nothing scheduled, or something like that

ok, this is good

next check the time, as the next part goes off of it

type dont forget to add a minuite or two onto your time

at time(military 24 hour) /interactive "cmd.exe"

then close command prompt, at the specified time a new command prompt should pop up

C:\windows\SYSTEM32
(browsing to this file in cmd doesnt work)

next open task manager (ctrl + shift + esc)

and end explorer, this should close all open explorer windows and get rid of your icons, but it should leave your cmd open

in the cmd after explorer has closed type

explorer.exe

this should log you in as system

you should now be able to access the entire hard drive, please note that all programs (viruses and spyware) also have this level of access now

ok, here is the technical part that i will not describe, if you have the folders, you should now be able to edit the PERMISSIONS to allow anyone to enter, note that even though it may sat administrator in the permissions section, you cant get in as the administrator listed has a different security id (sid)

thank you

more to come!

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Useful follow-up to ’s tip — if the goal is just to recover data from a crashed XP disk, there are safer, simpler options than changing live system ownerships. If hit trouble with the scheduled-task approach, try one of these three approaches (ordered from safest to most invasive).

Boot a Linux live USB and copy files (fast, avoids Windows ACLs). Boot an Ubuntu (or SystemRescue) live image, mount the XP NTFS volume with ntfs-3g and copy the user folders to an external drive. Example workflow (adjust device names and use quotes for paths with spaces):

sudo blkid
sudo mkdir /mnt/oldxp
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdXN /mnt/oldxp
cp -a "/mnt/oldxp/Documents and Settings/USERNAME" /media/usb/

This bypasses Windows ACLs entirely and is the least risky for the original installation. (help.ubuntu.com)

If you prefer Windows tools and have XP Professional, disable Simple File Sharing so the Security tab is visible, then take ownership via Properties → Security → Advanced → Owner and propagate to subfolders. For large trees or when GUI fails, Microsoft’s SubInACL (Resource Kit) and the KB reset script are commonly used to reset ownership/ACLs across a tree. Test on a copy first — these operations change ACLs system‑wide if mis‑used. (support.microsoft.com)

If you need a system‑level shell to fix very stubborn objects, the Sysinternals PsTools provide PsExec to run commands as the LocalSystem account (use with caution). Example:

psexec -i -s cmd.exe

Run only trusted commands once you understand the scope — SYSTEM access can modify everything and may trigger AV alerts. Finally, check for EFS (file encryption) first: encrypted files cannot be decrypted without the original user’s certificate or a configured recovery agent. If files are EFS‑encrypted you must recover the keys or use a Data Recovery Agent. (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick cautions: copy data before changing ACLs; don’t run executables from the old disk; scan recovered files with current AV.

Member Avatar for trungskiies

i tried doing the time .. it doesnt seem to work .. it says it doesnt accept and ask for a new time .. what do i do then ?

Member Avatar for campus1

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