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Windows 7 - Not recognizing music files

bshole

bshole

Diamond Member
I pulled the hard drive from an old Windows XP machine and put it into my Windows 7 machine. I can see the files but when I try to play them with Windows Media Player, I find myself unable to play them. If I move the files to the main drive, I am then able to play them. I would like to leave them on the old drive.

It appears to be some kind of permissions thing...
 
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Didn't work. The problem was that the original music files were on the main disc which had Windows XP on it. The XP had an adminstrator Dad-PC. The Windows 7 machine has an administrator Brads-PC.

Under Advanced Security Settings->Permissions, I can only browse users for the XP machine, I can't even seen the users for the Windows 7 machine. So I am unable to give myself permission to access the files.
 
Don't go to permissions. Go to the Owner tab.

In Windows Explorer, right-click on the folder or file you want to take ownership of, then click Properties. Click on the Security tab, then click the Advanced button. Click on the Owner tab, then click on the Edit button. Under "Change owner to:", click the name of the user account you are logged into on the Windows 7 computer. Check the box labeled "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", then click the OK button three times to save the settings and close the properties windows. Your user account is now the owner of the folder you clicked on and all of the files and subfolders inside of that folder.
 
Fardringle said:
Don't go to permissions. Go to the Owner tab.

In Windows Explorer, right-click on the folder or file you want to take ownership of, then click Properties. Click on the Security tab, then click the Advanced button. Click on the Owner tab, then click on the Edit button. Under "Change owner to:", click the name of the user account you are logged into on the Windows 7 computer. Check the box labeled "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", then click the OK button three times to save the settings and close the properties windows. Your user account is now the owner of the folder you clicked on and all of the files and subfolders inside of that folder.
Click to expand...

Yea i did that but it didn't work. It allows me to set Dad-PC as owner. It does NOT allow me to select any of the Windows 7 accounts as owner.... I can't even see them. It shows the adminstrator for the Windows Xp machine but not for the Windows 7 machine.
 
What folder is the music in? Is it a shared folder?

I understand that you are not able to play them, but what is the specific message?
 
The folder is E:\My Music

It is a shared folder.

The message is:

Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct.
Click to expand...
 
bshole said:
Yea i did that but it didn't work. It allows me to set Dad-PC as owner. It does NOT allow me to select any of the Windows 7 accounts as owner.... I can't even see them. It shows the adminstrator for the Windows Xp machine but not for the Windows 7 machine.
Click to expand...

If you are actually seeing the XP user accounts, then you are probably booting into the XP installation on the old hard drive. Windows 7 doesn't have any way to know what user accounts are in the XP installation. Boot into Windows 7 with the XP drive as a slave/data drive, then follow the instructions.
 
bshole said:
The folder is E:My Music. It is a shared folder.
Click to expand...

OK, have you tried adding a sharing option for everyone to that folder?

1. Right click on the folder on the drive and click on properties.
2. On the property window, click Security tab.
3. Now click on Edit and then click Add.
4. Now type everyone in the box and click OK.
5. Then check Full control check box.
6. Click on Apply and then click OK.
 
ketchup79 said:
OK, have you tried adding a sharing option for everyone to that folder?

1. Right click on the folder on the drive and click on properties.
2. On the property window, click Security tab.
3. Now click on Edit and then click Add.
4. Now type everyone in the box and click OK.
5. Then check Full control check box.
6. Click on Apply and then click OK.
Click to expand...

When I tried that I got the following message:

An error occurred when applying security information to:

E:\My Music\10,000 Maniacs\desktop.ini

Access is denied
Click to expand...
 
ketchup79 said:
If it were me, I would just pull them all to your drive, format the other drive, then put them back if you want them there.
Click to expand...

+1... I would of suggested the same thing. Not only will it re-establish the permissions, it'll allow you to clean up an additional drive prior to putting the music back on.

Good Luck!
 
Times like these, call for a bootable Linux LiveCD/DVD, and an external USB HDD. Boot Linux, copy the files you want to back up, to the external USB HDD.

Then you can import them into your new system at your leisure.
 
A way around the permissions is to use NORTON GHOST or similar imaging program.

Once you create an image of the drive then open the ghost image of the drive using GHOST EXPLORER.

Using ghost explorer bypasses the permissions set by the OS. Best way to strip permissions from the music when extracting is to extract to a fat32drive(USB thumb drive)
 
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You could also copy all the music off the drive, folders and everything. Then format the drive, then copy it all back on. Permissions in 7 are bugged. If an error occurs while setting permissions, things can get permanently hosed. I've seen it many times. A fresh format wipes all that away. Depending on how much you got, this wouldnt take very long.
 
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