Replacement hard drive problem/ account access

JonEG

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Jan 6, 2010, 6:48:22 PM1/6/10

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Hi there,

This is my first post so please be gentle!

My family computer is an old Dell Inspiron and for a while its been
very slow, then it stopped booting alltogether. The problem turned out
to be the hard drive was degenerating so we bought a new one, installed
it and kept the old one as the F drive so that we could access all the
old files. My brother then reinstalled windows onto the machine.

So far so good. Until I tried to access my old files.

My old user account was password protected and Im assuming that this is
the problem as when I try to get into it I get

F:\Documents and Settings\Jonathan is not accessible

Access is denied

Any idea how I can get into this folder as there are lots of family
photos, important documents, etc, etc that I need!!!

Thanks a lot guys!!

Jonathan

--
JonEG

philo

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Jan 6, 2010, 8:08:47 PM1/6/10

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not a password problem

you need to take ownership

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881

Andrew E.

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Jan 6, 2010, 8:14:01 PM1/6/10

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If a password exists on that account delete it & access the hd.Otherwise,
at pc start-up,tap the F8 key,select safe-mode,select to enter xp as the
"administrator",in xp,open the folder(s),either copy or try creating a short-
cut,move the shortcut to user account.

"JonEG" wrote:

> .
>

Bruce Chambers

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Jan 6, 2010, 9:02:07 PM1/6/10

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Andrew E. wrote:
> If a password exists on that account delete it & access the hd.Otherwise,
> at pc start-up,tap the F8 key,select safe-mode,select to enter xp as the
> "administrator",in xp,open the folder(s),either copy or try creating a short-
> cut,move the shortcut to user account.
>

Answer the wrong post, Andrew? I only ask because your reply is about
as far off base as it's possible to get.

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Bruce Chambers

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Bruce Chambers

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Jan 6, 2010, 9:02:55 PM1/6/10

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If you hadn't encrypted the data files (which could not have been
done with WinXP Home), you may be facing nothing more than a simple
permissions issue. Have you tried taking ownership of the old folders?

HOW TO Take Ownership of a File or Folder in WinXP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308421

Then simply use Windows Explorer to click and drag any files you
want from one drive to the other.

JonEG

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Jan 7, 2010, 10:11:40 AM1/7/10

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Thanks for that Philo,

However thats not quite worked, probably because this computer is
running the XP Home edition, have you got a link for this version
please???

Thanks again!

Jon

--
JonEG

philo

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Jan 7, 2010, 6:08:12 PM1/7/10

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with XP Home

you need to start the machine in safe mode

some info here:

http://www.winxptutor.com/ownership.htm