DescentBB

I'm trying to help a friend recover documents from his hard drive. Running XP

I've added his hard drive as a \"slave\" and I can see everything except it's not allowing me into many of the folders that I need to access to recover his data.

Any ideas?

Those files were saved with NTFS file security (default with Win 2000 and newer) and do not have the current user name as having access.

A way around it: Make a username on your XP system that exactly matches the username your friend was using. Give that username Admin rights long enough to log on with that username, get the files transferred/accessed ... and reset the security rights to the files to allow \"Everyone\" full read/write access.

This breaks ANY security the files had and makes them accessible by anyone. You are warned.

Or take ownership of the folders.

Ownership - How would I do that?

And on the username, would that be one he would use to login with? If not I'm not sure he would know if it's something he only had to do originally.

Do I go to \"control userpasswords2\" to add his name if he knows it?

I don't have \"User must enter a name.....\" checked so I can't add a name w/o checking that box cause it's greyed out.

Pretty sure I know my password. If not what is the downside? Not getting into my computer? Once it's checked and I restart the computer I ass-u-me I'm toast if I don't know it.

Krom, I might try yours first \"cause\" it won't involve my friends memory.

Thanks, gentlemen.

I'll report back.

Trying \"Ownership\" and when I go into Safemode and then go to a folder I'm trying to access it shows \"Empty\" when I hold my mouse over it and it's slightly \"greyed out\".

It also does not have the \"Security\" tab after right-clicking and Advance.

The Doc & Setting folder acts the same way.

Also no files/folders are being \"Hidden\"

Read the section of the article marked \"How to take ownership of a folder\" and follow it step by step. Note if you are running windows XP professional you do not need to boot into safe mode, that only applies to XP home.

It also does not have the \"Security\" tab after right-clicking and Advance.

The advanced button is inside the security tab, not the other way around.

I right-clicked on a folder and clicked on Properties.
There is no Security tab there.

Again, the folder is slightly lighter in color.

KB308421 wrote:Start Windows XP Home Edition in safe mode

If you are running Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has administrative rights in order to access the Security tab. Access to the Security tab is required in order to change security permission. [..]

Disable Simple File Sharing in Windows XP Professional

If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File Sharing when it is not joined to a domain.

KB307874 wrote:If simple file sharing is enabled, the simple file sharing user interface is displayed instead of the Security and Sharing tabs. By default, this new user interface is implemented in both Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional if you are working in a workgroup. If you disable simple file sharing, the classic Security and Sharing tabs appear, and you can specify which users and groups have access to shared folders on your computer.

Note You cannot disable simple file sharing in Windows XP Home Edition.

\"Note You cannot disable simple file sharing in Windows XP Home Edition.\"

I do have \"Home\" and don't seem to have the option to disable.

Boot XP Home edition into safe mode and the security tab should be there.

It is on the \"full\" color folders but the folders I want to get into are slightly lighter in color aand no Security tab.

Just talked to my friend and there were 3 or 4 different users that logged in using the same password.

You should be able to take ownership of the entire drive at once.

Here's what it looks like on his drive. Just highlight Admin and click on OK?

What about the box \"Replace owner.....\"

Can I change S-1-5-80-956008885-3418522649-1831038044-1853292631-2271478464 to \"Admin Inspirion or is that what happens if I click on Admin and then OK?.

Yeah, highlight Administrators and then check the \"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects\" box, then hit ok.

Well....got to that point, I'm the Admin of the whole drive but still won't let me into the \"My Docs\" of any of the users.

And no Security tab available in Properties.

GetDataBack is your friend

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

The price is worth it for my friend to recover his data.

I have his drive \"slaved\" on my computer. Will it affect anything on my drive?

Have you used it?

I've used it on a drive with a blown partition table and I can say it worked very well. Free lifetime updates is a good thing also.

Trying to access through Ubuntu which someone suggested. Trying to copy files to another computer off the original and then see what I can see with Ubuntu.

Haven't used it before so want to use a backup system in case anything goes wrong.

Well that didn't work because the folders will not copy over.

Going to try to burn them to a DVD.

All the folders I'm trying to access are blank. I'm assuming it's because there password protected.

Canuck, I've got his drive as a \"slave\" on my system.

Can I access his drive w/o jeopardizing mine?

No luck yet but another thought.

What if I added him on as an Admin and then changed my Admin password to his login password?

Ran Linix on MY computer. Could see his drive but couldn't get into any of the lighter yellow folder. Didn't say I was restricted, it just showed an empty folder.

I'm about as far as I can go unless I try one of the \"data recovery\" programs which may be a waste of $.

Thanks for all your help and as always, I learned a lot in the process.

Boy do I feel stupid. Looks like I've been wasting my time and yours. I just went into the hd and found a couple of text files I could open and found \"Vista\" among the verbage.

At this point I would have to guess that my friend doesn't know what OS he was running. And that's very possible.

Is there a different approach with Vista?

Ok let us get this straight. Your machine is running XP HOME? And his machine was running Vista? And now the drive is back in the Vista machine?

Here's how to take ownership of folders with Vista;
Ownership of folders Vista

That link also has some other links to scripts and shortcuts you can run, including command line destructions if you feel nerdy enough.

Not quite. His OS is Vista, my machine is running XP Home and I have Vista running on VirtualPC. And his drive is \"slaved\" to my XP machine.

I tried to go through my Vista on my Virtual PC and got this. http://screencast.com/t/u7k98Kq3fC if it gets me any closer.

I changed folder permissions until I got here which is the folder I'm trying to access. http://screencast.com/t/PcScLJ1L

Got this from another site, turn off UAC and try this;

\"Open Command Prompt as \"run as administrator.\"

Type lusrmgr.msc Return

You will get a GUI Local Users and groups. Check the Users node. Your sign in name must be among users as default. So far so good.

Go to the Groups node, expand it. Look at the Groups. Double Click on Administrators.

ADD yourselves to the Administrators group. Precisely as your name appears in the Users group. It will not allow you to goof up.

Close the GUI.

Right click on your folder. Select Security tab. I am typing the rest from memory, may miss a step or two. Add yourselves to the Users. First do Edit,
then Add in the next window.

Check Full control checkbox. Press Apply. Close that window. Select Ok.

From now on the whole folder and its subfolders will be your territory.\"

Hope it works.

Tried it but w/ the same results. Maybe I'll try it again tomorrow when my brain clears a little.

Tried it but no change. Also ran Ubuntu and \"mounted\" the drive in question.

Could open folders but some that I thought had the pics in them were empty. Got to ck w/ the owner again. He didn't know he was using Vista so I guess he could be off on where the pics are saved.

I'm wondering if \"access denied\" Vista folders would show up as empty.

Found the following but it only verifies what's happening. Doesn't get me any closer.
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Security/junctions.aspx

Thanks for all your help. It's been an adventure but I'm out matched. \"Stick a fork in me, I'm done.\"

Which means all his documents are going to be on root:\\users\\<username>\\my documents\\... most likely.

Yep!