I had a motherboard go belly-up and after I replaced it, I screwed up the XP SP2 operating system to the point where I only get a reboot every time I try to startup.

I had some extra drives so I installed XP on one of them and connected up the old drive. I can see the directory where the files are located but XP will not allow me access.

I found a some info on “How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP”, but it does not work. (MS Article ID : 308421)

For one thing, it wants me to go into safe mode and I can’t get it into safe mode. F8 dosent work. For XP Pro I need to disable “Simple File Sharing” (MS Article ID : 307874), which I can not find.

Does anybody have any Ideas?

no idea

Are you running XP home or pro(MCE is pro too)

IF XP Pro
Open any old explorer window and click Tools -> Folder Options
Once there select the View tab
Scroll down and turn OFF use simple file sharing at the bottom.

Now you should have the security tab on files.

IF Home
Read this and follow first

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006 [...] e-edition/

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Steps to take ownership of files.

Right click the drive you want to take ownership of and click properties.

Get over to the "Security" Tab and click on "Advanced".
Once there click on the "Owner" tab(Note the current owner of this item, if its all messed like in my screen, it's a user from the original computer).
Select your self from the list of owners(Change owner to).
Make sure you select "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". hit "Apply"

You should get what looks like a file copy box but its called Security and it will take ownership of everything. This can take some time

Hope that helps some

Thanks for responding. I have XP Multi Media Center, but I can‘t see any security tabs, or at least as written in MS 307874. XP Professional appears on top of screen during certain command tasks. Your instructions look a little different.
I have to go to work now, so I’m going to check it out when I get back.

Once you turn off simple file sharing it will look like the one on the ms site.

The screens above are from Windows Media Center Edition 2005. Its effectivly pro with the MCE parts added.

Ok, it worked! I Thank you, my wife thanks you, and kids thank you. My kids were about ready to string me up because I thought I lost all there stuff.

I did not realize that I needed to right click on the drive. I was trying to click on the folder itself. That was a great illustration , it made it so easy. Thanks again.

This is a great forum, you can not believe the things that I read in other forums. I just knew it could not be true.

You can also do it to folders and even files.

glad you got it working.