Locked out of my documents - Help please

I was running a Windows XP Pro system with the user account password
protected and my documents private.

The motherboard failed.

The cheapest solution was to buy a new computer which naturally
came with Vista (Home basic).

The drive in the new computer is a WDC Sata drive and so is the drive
from the old computer. I plugged the old drive into the new computer
as a second disk & and can see everything on it. I copied some data
files to the new computer - no problem - then I tried to copy My
Documents. I was denied access. I gained ownership of the My
Documents folder on the old drive and could then see the contents but
I can't gain ownership of the files. Thousands of photos and some Word
& Excel files are there but I can't get at them.

Have I lost everything?

I tried unplugging the HDD from the new computer & plugging in the old
HDD. It gets as far as saying Windows XP & then I get a blue screen,
probably a Sata driver related problem.

Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Ed

Yeah wrote:

>
> I was running a Windows XP Pro system with the user account password
> protected and my documents private.
>
> The motherboard failed.
>
> The cheapest solution was to buy a new computer which naturally
> came with Vista (Home basic).
>
> The drive in the new computer is a WDC Sata drive and so is the drive
> from the old computer. I plugged the old drive into the new computer
> as a second disk & and can see everything on it. I copied some data
> files to the new computer - no problem - then I tried to copy My
> Documents. I was denied access. I gained ownership of the My
> Documents folder on the old drive and could then see the contents but
> I can't gain ownership of the files. Thousands of photos and some Word
> & Excel files are there but I can't get at them.
>
> Have I lost everything?
>
> I tried unplugging the HDD from the new computer & plugging in the old
> HDD. It gets as far as saying Windows XP & then I get a blue screen,
> probably a Sata driver related problem.

Try taking ownership again. I suspect you only took ownership of the parent
folder and didn't check the box so all the child objects (files/folders)
will inherit the parent's (My Documents) permissions.

If that still doesn't work, did you encrypt the files with either XP Pro's
EFS or a third-party encryption program? If yes, did you remember to export
your keys?

If you didn't use encryption but still can't take ownership (and I'm not
sure why this isn't working for you), I'd boot with a Linux live CD like
Knoppix and use it to copy the files over to a different folder. Linux
won't honor Windows' permissions.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Don't forget to add a permission giving yourself full control over the files
after you take ownership of them.

- JB

"Yeah" <bil@ben.com> wrote in message
news:b4o4f4tsjj271c26gp88nek9cftdhhduar@4ax.com...
>
> I was running a Windows XP Pro system with the user account password
> protected and my documents private.
>
> The motherboard failed.
>
> The cheapest solution was to buy a new computer which naturally
> came with Vista (Home basic).
>
> The drive in the new computer is a WDC Sata drive and so is the drive
> from the old computer. I plugged the old drive into the new computer
> as a second disk & and can see everything on it. I copied some data
> files to the new computer - no problem - then I tried to copy My
> Documents. I was denied access. I gained ownership of the My
> Documents folder on the old drive and could then see the contents but
> I can't gain ownership of the files. Thousands of photos and some Word
> & Excel files are there but I can't get at them.
>
> Have I lost everything?
>
> I tried unplugging the HDD from the new computer & plugging in the old
> HDD. It gets as far as saying Windows XP & then I get a blue screen,
> probably a Sata driver related problem.
>
> Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Ed

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:03:35 -0700, Malke <malke@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

>Yeah wrote:
>
>>
>> I was running a Windows XP Pro system with the user account password
>> protected and my documents private.
>>
>> The motherboard failed.
>>
>> The cheapest solution was to buy a new computer which naturally
>> came with Vista (Home basic).
>>
>> The drive in the new computer is a WDC Sata drive and so is the drive
>> from the old computer. I plugged the old drive into the new computer
>> as a second disk & and can see everything on it. I copied some data
>> files to the new computer - no problem - then I tried to copy My
>> Documents. I was denied access. I gained ownership of the My
>> Documents folder on the old drive and could then see the contents but
>> I can't gain ownership of the files. Thousands of photos and some Word
>> & Excel files are there but I can't get at them.
>>
>> Have I lost everything?
>>
>> I tried unplugging the HDD from the new computer & plugging in the old
>> HDD. It gets as far as saying Windows XP & then I get a blue screen,
>> probably a Sata driver related problem.
>
>Try taking ownership again. I suspect you only took ownership of the parent
>folder and didn't check the box so all the child objects (files/folders)
>will inherit the parent's (My Documents) permissions.
You are right, I did only take ownership of the parent folder,
realised what I'd done and took ownership of sub folders individually.
Problem is I'm not familiar with Vista & don't know how to start
afresh as you suggest. Can you help.
Much appreciate your quick reply.

Ed

>
>If that still doesn't work, did you encrypt the files with either XP Pro's
>EFS or a third-party encryption program? If yes, did you remember to export
>your keys?
>
>If you didn't use encryption but still can't take ownership (and I'm not
>sure why this isn't working for you), I'd boot with a Linux live CD like
>Knoppix and use it to copy the files over to a different folder. Linux
>won't honor Windows' permissions.
>
>Malke

Yeah wrote:

> You are right, I did only take ownership of the parent folder,
> realised what I'd done and took ownership of sub folders individually.
> Problem is I'm not familiar with Vista & don't know how to start
> afresh as you suggest. Can you help.
> Much appreciate your quick reply.

You don't need to start over. Just:

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an
administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
confirmation.
4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
6. Click OK

#5 is key in your case.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:31:06 -0700, Malke <malke@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

>Yeah wrote:
>
>> You are right, I did only take ownership of the parent folder,
>> realised what I'd done and took ownership of sub folders individually.
>> Problem is I'm not familiar with Vista & don't know how to start
>> afresh as you suggest. Can you help.
>> Much appreciate your quick reply.
>
>You don't need to start over. Just:
>
>1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click
>Properties.
>2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
>3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an
>administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
>confirmation.
>4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
>5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
>folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
>6. Click OK
>
>#5 is key in your case.
>
>Malke

Brilliant!!
Problem solved.
Thank you very much indeed.

Yeah

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:14:40 -0400, "Jimmy Brush" <jb@mvps.org> wrote:

>Don't forget to add a permission giving yourself full control over the files
>after you take ownership of them.
>
>- JB

Thank you

Yeah
>
>"Yeah" <bil@ben.com> wrote in message
>news:b4o4f4tsjj271c26gp88nek9cftdhhduar@4ax.com.. .
>>
>> I was running a Windows XP Pro system with the user account password
>> protected and my documents private.
>>
>> The motherboard failed.
>>
>> The cheapest solution was to buy a new computer which naturally
>> came with Vista (Home basic).
>>
>> The drive in the new computer is a WDC Sata drive and so is the drive
>> from the old computer. I plugged the old drive into the new computer
>> as a second disk & and can see everything on it. I copied some data
>> files to the new computer - no problem - then I tried to copy My
>> Documents. I was denied access. I gained ownership of the My
>> Documents folder on the old drive and could then see the contents but
>> I can't gain ownership of the files. Thousands of photos and some Word
>> & Excel files are there but I can't get at them.
>>
>> Have I lost everything?
>>
>> I tried unplugging the HDD from the new computer & plugging in the old
>> HDD. It gets as far as saying Windows XP & then I get a blue screen,
>> probably a Sata driver related problem.
>>
>> Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>>
>> Ed

Yeah wrote:

>>You don't need to start over. Just:
>>
>>1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then
>>click Properties.
>>2. Click the Security tab, click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
>>3. Click Edit. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for
>>an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
>>confirmation.
>>4. Click the name of the person you want to give ownership to.
>>5. If you want that person to be the owner of files and subfolders in this
>>folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
>>6. Click OK
>>
>>#5 is key in your case.

>
> Brilliant!!
> Problem solved.
> Thank you very much indeed.

Glad that sorted it for you. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ