My motherboard just cracked and i have stuff on the harddrive that i need. I put the harddrive in another computer and I can access all files except the ones under my name. How can i get access to them. It was password protected and it was an administrator. Also, the hd won't boot on it's own so it is probably damaged.

Seems as if your system was profile based. Are you logging on the system with Administrative rights? If so, have you tried browsing to the 'documents and settings' folder and there should be various folders there i.e. 'All Users' and one named after your usual login, these files could be stored on there.

I am logged in as admin and when i try to access d:/documents and settings/name/local settings/ it says access is denied (not "you do not have permission" but ...is not accessible.|Access is denied.)

Does your admin have administrator privledges? lol

Yeah it does. Thats why its so odd. It has full administrative writes.

My suggestion would be not try to access the files as admin, but rather access them as System. I don't have much experience, but that's how you can workaround some stuff in Win2k at least. I just fire up Serv-U and let it run as service and viola you're done.

Hope that solved it.

i think that the files are decrypted.. that means even a admin will not get acces to the files..

so if a persoon called mark and he decrept test.txt. nobody els can read it or modife it. only this person mark can change it so.. even the admin can't acces this file ...


but this is only possible in xp. the windows 2000 there is it possible that the admin can see read and modifed the file..

Did you try going to the ACL for your profile? Right click the folder you connect get access to and goto proterties, security tab, make sure your user name has Full Control permissions to the folder. 2nd off, just make sure Everyone has full control. That should give u access:)

I've tried everything that has been posted and nothing has worked. If the files are encrypted, is there any way of decrypting them? I know the password of the profile.

Also i forgot to mention. The HD won't boot. I access it as a slave

ok, i've kinda given up on accessing the files while running the file as a slave so now i'm trying to get it to boot on its own. It gets the the screen with "Windows XP professional" with the scrolling bar and then it just reboots. I thought it might be the ntsokrnl (spelling?) and i replaced it but that didn't help. any thoughts?

just give yourself the proper rights for the files you need
that's no (filtered) prob

it has nothing to do with rights. i have figured that much out. the main administrator account cannot access the files, an RAT cannot access the files (as well as servu).

sure it does
it has the NTFS rights of the admin of the other system !!

so how am i going to do this? i can't access the files with any account. i even remade the account identicle to how it was on the other system and it still is not accessible.

You can't remake the acct identical, because even if the name it same it's SID identifier is different,
What you need to do is use cacls.exe to completely change permissions of the files.
You should at a minimum be able to acess them, after that if they're encrypted then it's a whole new ballgame.

enable the security tab in windows XP and you can do all you want

boot from a disc and restore the permissions?

reset the administration permissions in the correct tab. should work

go to security tab --> advanced and add yourself with full rights to the folder. my friend had the same prob and that worked

I believe using mandrake linux would bypass the Windows file protections.

there's a option called "take ownership" in the security menu, add your username, change the permissions and you're done