XP security won't let me access data from old hdd

Rocketcaver

New Member
Built a new computer cause old mobo trashed.
New XP (home edition) installed on new drive, all works fine.
New drive is SASA, old drive is IDE.
They play together just fine.
Almost.
I can access MOST of my old data, but when I try to copy (or view) my files from "My doccuments" folder including all my personal stuff and photos it says access denied.
I didn't have anything password protected, but did have "owner" and "gamer" users set up.
I can get to all the "gamer" stuff, but not the "owner".
New OS is XP, old OS was also XP.
Any ideas?
 

PohTayToez

Active Member
There is a way to do this, quite simply, however since this information pertains to bypassing security, I believe it is against forum rules to discuss.

I would suggest Googling the error that appears when you try and copy data and you should be able to find how to work around it.
 

Rocketcaver

New Member
Hmmm,
I figured since I am just trying to recover my own data the subject would not be considered taboo.
Googling "access denied" doesn't turn up anything usefull.
 

patrickv

Active Member
it's not XP security that's doing this, it's because you setup your account on the old hard drive to "Private".
sometimes when creating user accounts on xp this question pips up, and the answer should be "no", cause if you put yes, this is what happens, you can't access your data via another pc or from another account, even with no password.

can't think of any way to help you mate, sorry
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
You need to give yourself ownership of the files. What version of windows was the old install and what is the new?

Welcome to the world of crapily written permissions that is windows, too bad they can't follow standard POSIX like everyone else.

There are third party utilities that allow you to change ownership of directories.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
it's not XP security that's doing this, it's because you setup your account on the old hard drive to "Private".
sometimes when creating user accounts on xp this question pips up, and the answer should be "no", cause if you put yes, this is what happens, you can't access your data via another pc or from another account, even with no password.

can't think of any way to help you mate, sorry

Well, that actually in itself is security, setting it to private. Its basically the POSIX way of making a directory drwx-r------ or 711 (for binary) which means only the owner/group can view it, and only the owner can read/write/execute.

you can perhaps mess around with the attrib command. I don't have access to a windows machine at the moment so I can't tell you.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
sorry its not attrib its the calcs command

http://www.ss64.com/nt/cacls.html

You can try changing permissions that way, or get a third party utility, or boot off a PE disk and try and change it. Do note that third party utilities that allow this like ERD are super expensive.
 

PohTayToez

Active Member
Turns out Microsoft actually has the method to bypass it on their support site, so I guess it's probably ok to post it here.

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

1. Turn off Simple File Sharing:
a. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
b. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
c. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
2.Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
3.Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.
4.Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
5.In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.

If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.6.Click OK.

You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of: You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

7.Click Yes.
8.Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.
 

Rocketcaver

New Member
That would probably have worked in XP Pro, but this is Home, which has fewer security options.
I was able to do pretty much the same thing by booting up into safe mode and playing with ownership.
Thanks everybody for the suggestions!
 
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