Oh crap

BobSutan

BobSutan

[H]F Junkie
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Apr 5, 2000
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My main rig blew up last night when I lost a secondary drive. For some reason that kept the primary drive from booting. So I reinstalled on the drive still working, which is what the original OS was loaded on. Didn't format, just reinstalled so I could get access to the data, back it up, then format the whole thing and start from scratch. Well, that plan isn't working. I can get to everything on the old load EXCEPT my data files in the Document's & Settings folder. My mom's folder, the wife's, a test account all worked fine. But whenever I try to get into my folder I get "access denied."

Any thoughts on how to break into this damn thing and get my data back? No encryption was involved.

Edit:

Looks like some other files are borked as well. Pretty much anything that didn't have full control assigned is locked in place. Even though this drive is set up with NTFS, I can't view the file permissions or change the ownership to assign rights to my new admin account. WTF is up with that?
 
Welcome to the wacky wonderful weird world of Windows. :D

My first suggestion would be try to get a UBCD4Win built as it'll have tools on it that can prove quite useful in saving that data. Using that tool you should be able to get access to the folders/files in question, with a strong emphasis on the word "should" there. I don't mean the old UBCD either, that's DOS-based; I mean UBCD4Win which allows you to add/remove tons of different tools as required to get your system back up and running again.

I've been in your situation a few thousand times, and the UBCD4Win I built for myself a few years ago just after that project first started has saved not only my own system "blowups" but client boxes as well.

Good luck...
 
Helps if I read thoroughly..

However, if the security tab is missing you can disable simple file sharing to reenable it.
 
Tried that. Didn't work. It's as if that entire C: drive is oblivious to NTFS. I installed the new OS onto the D: drive without reformatting, so maybe another install on the C drive would do it? But that would be risky as hell as it would blow away a lot of files.
 
This is a permissions issue.
You need to take ownership of the folders or add yourself as a user.

This is expected behaviour so that different users of the same machine cant browse each others my documents etc.
As you are no longer the owner of the folder, you need to make yourself the owner again.
 
I had a really weird problem at work recently where I was unable to set permissions on these kiosk machines as the administrator. So out of curiosity I booted into safe mode attempted to change the permissions and it worked...I don't know if Windows SteadyState had something to do with it but it worked, and I didn't argue with it. So, random suggestion but it might work. :p
 
Download Ubuntu LiveCD ..

mount the NTFS drive .. and copy the data off to an external HDD.

works everytime.
 
Nenu said:
This is a permissions issue.
You need to take ownership of the folders or add yourself as a user.

This is expected behaviour so that different users of the same machine cant browse each others my documents etc.
As you are no longer the owner of the folder, you need to make yourself the owner again.
Click to expand...

+1 you need to take ownership of the files.
 
this is why its bad to have a password for a home computer. yes its necessary but for times like this, it definitely sucks :(. goodluck!
 
We've dealt with this over at the repair shop I used to work for all the time. Simply taking ownership solves your problem. In old XP Home editions, the 'security' tab may not be there in regular mode, so you must use safe mode. I believe it is enabled by default in pro. Tkae ownership of all folders and sub-folders.
 
Nenu said:
This is a permissions issue.
You need to take ownership of the folders or add yourself as a user.

This is expected behaviour so that different users of the same machine cant browse each others my documents etc.
As you are no longer the owner of the folder, you need to make yourself the owner again.
Click to expand...

Another vote for taking ownership.
 
That's the problem. There is no way to take ownership of the files. That option is completely missing from the OS regarding that partition and I have no idea why. It is still listed as an NTFS drive.
 
Because - unless you specifically turned it off - Simple File Sharing is enabled and is the default for "security" in both XP Home and Pro. With that turned on, you will not "see" the Security tab on dialogue boxes for file/folder properties, hence you can't do Jack Shit about permissions.

You need to disable it, or follow the advice above about using a bootable disc, most likely some Linux distro like Ubuntu or any other these days, mount the drive under that temporary OS, and copy the files off to some external storage device.

As long as Simple File Sharing is there with Windows as the OS you're running, you'll never be able to do much about the permissions, so using a Linux LiveCD will effectively get around that limitation without breaking a sweat.
 
Simple Sharing is off. Still no dice. Downloading UBCD right now.
 
UBCD should fix it for you.

If not, a LIVE enviroment of a PXE type deal should help you access the files
 
Next time instead of re-installing windows boot from the CD and do a repair. Likely won't work now as you have already re-installed over the top once. Try safe mode as mentioned.
 
Reboot in SAFE mode. You should be able to take ownership that way. Always has worked for me in SAFE mode.

Good luck.
 
alphanumeric said:
Next time instead of re-installing windows boot from the CD and do a repair. Likely won't work now as you have already re-installed over the top once. Try safe mode as mentioned.
Click to expand...

Tried that before reinstalling. No dice.
 
Scroatdog said:
Reboot in SAFE mode. You should be able to take ownership that way. Always has worked for me in SAFE mode.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Tried that as well as Last Known Good. Every time I tried to boot up windows the system rebooted. It all stated when I was surfing and the system rebooted. And rebooted, and rebooted, etc.
 
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