HELP!!! windows XP HE .. can't get at my music files :(

[TotalImmortal]

Hi,
having just got myself a lovely new Athlon64 setup i decided it would also be nice to have a clean windows install instead of wading through the reckage of my old one...
I installed Windows XP Homes as normal and told it to leave my current files on my disk to save me the hastel of regathering my music colection.
The problem is that i can't acess the my old accounts files in 'documents and settings' folder because it says 'acess denied' whenever i doubble click on the folder.
I have tryed using safe mode, the recovery console (booted from cd) and linux knoppix bootable cd.
none with any sucess.
The first 2 still say acess denied and the linux cd dosn't recognise my SATA harddrive...

I would realy appreciate any help any one can offer on how to get at my music collection..

I guess what i need is a program which breaks the windows security settings which prevent me acessing it, but despite hours of googeling i still can't find one.

Thanks for any help.

 

[mechBgon]

Don't panic

What you need to do is to take "ownership" of the directories that your stuff is in. On WinXP Home Edition, I'm told that you will need to start by booting in Safe Mode in order to be able to do this. So here you go:

1. Start your system in Safe Mode so you can get at the Security and Ownership stuff (if this were WinXP then you would go to Control Panel > Folder Options and disable Simple File Sharing so you could get at Security and Ownership without resorting to Safe Mode)
2. Find the \Documents and Settings\yourusername directory on the old hard drive
3. Right-click it and choose Properties
4. There should be a Security tab with an Advanced button that opens another panel, like shown here for my \Documents and Settings\mechBgon directory.
5. Put a checkmark in the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects box and give Ownership to one of the accounts from your new installation, and when it's done, you should be able to work with your files as expected

Hope that helps

 

[TotalImmortal]

Thanks for the help,
I sorted it now, I created a new account with the same name which overwrote the old one and deleated the files, i then recovered the with an undeleater.. a bit risky but seems to have worked perfectly.
Thanks again for the help...

 

[mechBgon]

Did my suggested routine not work?

 

[TotalImmortal]

It probably does work, i didn't read it until i had already used the undeleater method. Thanks for the help tho, i have copied and pasted your sujestion incase i have a similar problem again.