"Access Denied" .. please help!

M

MastaKilla

Gawd
Joined
Mar 2, 2001
Messages
562
Ok, so i have this computer that doesnt work.. it locks up windows and even when i reinstalled windows.. it locks up right before i can log in at the same spot. I then decided id back up all the info on my other computer. I stick the hardrive of the broken computer into the one that works and it shows up fine under my computer. All the files I need are on desktop.. problem is.. i always logged in as administrator so its under documents and settings/administrator. everytime i try to acess that folder it just says access denied. i had password for the administrator account so i changed the administrator password on the workin computer to that of the broken one and logged in as that.. still no go.. so now im stuck.. i just need to pull some files out but i cant get access.. anyone have any idea on what i can do here?
 
Try taking ownership of the folder. I had this problem once and simply taking ownership of the directory cleared it up.
 
In Win XP Pro

Rightclick the directory you can't access and choose "PROPERTIES".

Next, click the SECURITY tab.

Then click the ADVANCED button at the bottom of window.

Then click the OWNER tab.

Select yourself in the area labeled "Change owner to". Also, click the checkbox at the bottom labeled "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects."

Click Apply and you should have access.

Any other OS, I'm not too sure since it's been a long time since I've used anything other than XP Pro. Security settings for the directory is where the option would be though.
 
To answer your next question: ;)

To be able to do this, you will need to go into folder options and uncheck 'use simple file sharing'.
 
What he said.

Thanks. I didn't even think of mentioning that. It's one of the first things I do after a fresh install so it didn't even occur to me. :)
 
Hmm...if you're saying it locks up at the same spot, it suggests that you're not doing a fresh install of Windows. If it is, then it should be a new spot, because it would be the first time that installation of Windows was started. Of course this might already be the case based on what you've done. If not, one alternative would be to boot to the command prompt to delete the Windows XP system files folder by folder, (tedious I know), and either copy the files you need off to cd or something and delete the rest of the files or format the drive and start over, or just delete all the Windows XP files which would serve the same purpose as far as Windows is concerned. I find people commonly reformatting their drives for a clean install when that's usually not necessary, as a Windows install doesn't care about any other files that are on the drive, only the Windows XP system files, and when they're all gone, it's as if the drive was formatted from an operating system standpoint because nothing from the previous installation would be carried over

Also, when you put the hard drive in the working computer, did you boot from it, thereby running from the drive's own Windows XP system, or boot from the working hard drive's computer? If you haven't already done so, I would also put the hard drive in as a slave, and boot from the working system's own drive so nothing in the system files of the non-working hard drive is initialized. I suppose you could also accomplish this from booting the working computer to the command prompt and seeing if you could get to the files on the second hard drive from there.

If none of these work, it sounds to me that NTFS is a possible culprit...I know for a fact that if you are using plain unencrypted FAT32, any file protections in the OS are moot if the drive is not booted and used as a slave in another computer. You would be able to look at all the contents of the drive, system files included, as if they were any other file, since no part of that drive's OS would be initialized, so the system files wouldn't be doing anything and just act as regular files.

Hopefully the folder ownership will work though....it's a lot easier, but do a fresh install on that drive afterwards!
 
thanx guys, got the permissions set right and got all the files backed up. so im just gonna do a clean install of xp. its needed anyway.. apreciate it!!
 
Lol, sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in the DOS 3.3 era...I still would rather type copy *.* than lug a mouse around...but though I could do repair installs or what not with XP, its just psychological gratification to know that nothing from a past installation is being carried over if i delete the old installation manually and start over...plus it gives me an excuse to organize the HD better!
 
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