Unable to access old user account "Documents and Settings" folder in XP...Please Help

[Rapturas]

Hey all.

here's my story..
rather frustrated but thats the price you pay I guess...
Some time ago I had partitioned my hard drive in to two (C: being in NTFS), over the weekend I tried to create an additional partition but I was unable to do so. I cancelled the set up, rebooted and started . Immediately after I changed my virus protection from Mcafee to Kaspersky, rather than uninstalling Mcafee first I installed Kaspersky, on the setup I was prompted with a message informing me that Mcafee should be uninstalled in order to continue installing Kaspersky so, I proceeded to uninstall Mcafee, robooted and continued installing Kaspersky. I had to reboot a further time to allow Kaspersky to run, after Windows had started and my system tray icons began to start appearing, the computer began to start freezing up, so much so that I couldnt even get task manager up when pressing ctrl+alt+del. I had to force a shut down by switching the laptop off. After a few attempts of trying to get windows to run properly (ie not freezing up on startup) I ran out of patients and decided to reinstall windows but leaving the current file system (or system files (cant remember which)) intact. I choose this option as i had not made a back up of some files which are fairly important however, when windows began after the setup I could not access my old Documents and Settings folder which contains various files in my documents, received files, my pictures, etc etc. Windows created two new folders, one for the new “All Users. and one for my user account. It kept my original/old “All users and My old user account folders but I think because I had those folders marked “not to share with anyone I cant access them myself now. I believe my old files are still on the machine but obviously I cant be sure as I cant access the files, I think they are on there as the total free space remaining is roughly the same as before the problem began.

Failed attempts to fix problem…
After browsing the net I found a few articles pertaining to similar problems faced in not being able to access folders which aren’t “shared. One suggested using xcopy through MS Dos to either copy or move the files from a particular directory to another. I located xcopy on my laptop, realised you needed to run Dos in order to use xcopy =o/ but when trying to actually move/copy the files using the syntax provided in an example in that article I received only error messages in Dos saying something like “incorrect syntax, 0 files moved. I figured out how to move single files from one director to another using only the move command in does but I cant get it to work with my Documents and Settings folder???

Another article mentioned using a boot CD or USB device to access the inaccessible folders. The only boot disk I have will only install windows components and not my jpeg, mp3, etc files. As for a USB device, I only have a USB joystick and mouse, cant get much on there haha =o(

Other than that, I cant see any other way. Can anyone give me some advice, point me in the right direction or even, just tell me to give up now and face the music lol im at that stage now where the old saying “technology and violence don’t mix no longer seems relevant; the next time I have to re-boot, it will be out the flaming window through double glazing (if its raining lol).

Any questions please let me know.
Thanks

[caperjack]

try this
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

[Rapturas]

Hi, im trying to use the "How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP" but when i try to follow the steps I do not see some of the options mentioned such as 2.Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).3.Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

I can see the option to share the folder or files but when i select "share this folder on the network" which is the only share option i am given it comes up with an error message saying "an error occurred while trying to share "xxxxx". access is denied. The shared resource was not created at this time".

I have tried dragging and dropping the file into my "administrator's documents folder but it says the folder is read only etc etc.

Any other ideas?
thanks

[atusande]

Hey all.

here's my story..
rather frustrated but thats the price you pay I guess...
Some time ago I had partitioned my hard drive in to two (C: being in NTFS), over the weekend I tried to create an additional partition but I was unable to do so. I cancelled the set up, rebooted and started . Immediately after I changed my virus protection from Mcafee to Kaspersky, rather than uninstalling Mcafee first I installed Kaspersky, on the setup I was prompted with a message informing me that Mcafee should be uninstalled in order to continue installing Kaspersky so, I proceeded to uninstall Mcafee, robooted and continued installing Kaspersky. I had to reboot a further time to allow Kaspersky to run, after Windows had started and my system tray icons began to start appearing, the computer began to start freezing up, so much so that I couldnt even get task manager up when pressing ctrl+alt+del. I had to force a shut down by switching the laptop off. After a few attempts of trying to get windows to run properly (ie not freezing up on startup) I ran out of patients and decided to reinstall windows but leaving the current file system (or system files (cant remember which)) intact. I choose this option as i had not made a back up of some files which are fairly important however, when windows began after the setup I could not access my old Documents and Settings folder which contains various files in my documents, received files, my pictures, etc etc. Windows created two new folders, one for the new “All Users.�? and one for my user account. It kept my original/old “All users�? and My old user account folders but I think because I had those folders marked “not to share�? with anyone I cant access them myself now. I believe my old files are still on the machine but obviously I cant be sure as I cant access the files, I think they are on there as the total free space remaining is roughly the same as before the problem began.

Failed attempts to fix problem…
After browsing the net I found a few articles pertaining to similar problems faced in not being able to access folders which aren’t “shared�?. One suggested using xcopy through MS Dos to either copy or move the files from a particular directory to another. I located xcopy on my laptop, realised you needed to run Dos in order to use xcopy =o/ but when trying to actually move/copy the files using the syntax provided in an example in that article I received only error messages in Dos saying something like “incorrect syntax, 0 files moved�?. I figured out how to move single files from one director to another using only the move command in does but I cant get it to work with my Documents and Settings folder???

Another article mentioned using a boot CD or USB device to access the inaccessible folders. The only boot disk I have will only install windows components and not my jpeg, mp3, etc files. As for a USB device, I only have a USB joystick and mouse, cant get much on there haha =o(

Other than that, I cant see any other way. Can anyone give me some advice, point me in the right direction or even, just tell me to give up now and face the music lol im at that stage now where the old saying “technology and violence don’t mix�? no longer seems relevant; the next time I have to re-boot, it will be out the flaming window through double glazing (if its raining lol).

Any questions please let me know.
Thanks

Same thing happened 2 me....what can i do

[samwidge]

Same thing happened 2 me....what can i do

Yeh same thing happened to me 2 guys........i have made copies of the files that i wanna keep so i just wanna get a clean harddrive and reinstall windows xp home edition. I'm not sure if the disc that came with my pc will do that though. Is there any way i can find this information out??

[Killer22]

Okay, there is a way to gain access to your files once again. I recently had to search google to find how how to do this. First, you have to reboot your computer into safe mode (see http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml for a how to). Once you've logged into an admin account you'll be able to change file owners and access them. See http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/6f097abe-d1d9-4d16-93c5-7326aa1f33791033.mspx?mfr=true to learn how to change file owners...

I hope this helps.

[jbennet]

you dont get the security tab on xp home ed. by the way, only a very limited sharing tab. if you made ypur folders private then your kinda screwed

[Dario M]

Have you tried using the xcacls.exe command ? I used it in windows xp prof and it solved quite the same problem you have.