Iam trying to access my files on my old hard drive, i can see them all except th

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Iam trying to access my files on my old hard drive, i can see them all except the file abc which is where i kept all my music photos etc! it says the folder is empty and comes up with access denied when i try to open it????
 

takenra

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Jan 16, 2009
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On your old machine, did you have multiple user accounts and was each account set to private? If so, the files are only visable to that person. If you still have the old machine or if you just upgraded the drive, reuse your old drive as the boot drive and log in as the correct user, then copy the files to a new folder that is not part of documents and settings (assuming XP). Make sure you reset all teh file attributes and permissions to allow all users to read/write the files. Then when you start using the old hard drive a secondary drive again, you should be able to access all the files.

Hope that helps and is understandable
 
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yes i did, and im guessing that it was set to private! i do not have the machine it was smashed in many bits. all i have is the hard disk which i put in an enclosure! so the big question what now????
 

takenra

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While I'm not sure what the best option is, a couple of suggestions that may or may not work....

If you can remember the old user name, try setting up that user on your new machine and seeing if that works (I suspect that it won't but just in case!)

If you are using vista (may be able to do it in XP as well although again not sure), you could always try resetting the folder permissions by going through the properties.

right click on the folder and select properties
choose the security tab
then edit the permissions and set your current user name as the owner and make the folder accessible by all

Hopefully that will then allow you to access your files. I'll see what else I can think of to help as well
 
yes i did, and im guessing that it was set to private! i do not have the machine it was smashed in many bits. all i have is the hard disk which i put in an enclosure! so the big question what now????
You have to use an account with administrative privileges and do two things:

1: Take ownership of the files, this allows you to change their permissions.

2: Change the permissions on the files to allow access to your administrative account or to whatever account you want to use them from.

You do these things by right-clicking on the folder, selecting "Properties", and then choosing the "Security" tab. From there click the "Advanced" button to get to the more detailed security properties choices.

When you do each step, make sure you choose the option to apply the change not just to the folder but also to all files and subfolders.
 
No, that won't work because every new account gets a unique security identifier, even if it has the same user name. Permissions are based on the security identifier, and no two accounts can ever have the same one (in theory).