Reinstalled WIndows

sprinkles

Ok for the 2nd time in as many months I've had to re install windows. Hopefully this time it works for a while.

Anyway this time I changed my username when setting it up and my old files in my doc's etc are missing. Thing is they are still taking up space on the hard drive. Reason I know this is due to my doc being about 80gigs.

I have searched the hard disc and I'm not finding anything. Is there anyway of getting to these files?

Danny

Open My Computer and the C drive. Now open Documents and Settings and you should see a folder with your old username on it. Open that and see if your files are there. If it gives you an Access Denied error then you probably made them private at some stage, you'll need to go into Safe Mode and change the security in that case.

sprinkles

Karsini wrote:

Open My Computer and the C drive. Now open Documents and Settings and you should see a folder with your old username on it. Open that and see if your files are there. If it gives you an Access Denied error then you probably made them private at some stage, you'll need to go into Safe Mode and change the security in that case.

Aha... you're onto something with the access denied. Ok, start in safe mode and how do I change the security?

Damn Evil Windows.

When you start in Safe Mode, right click the user folder that's giving you the error and select Properties. Now click the Security tab and press the Add button. In the box which appears, type "Everyone" and click OK. Now select Everyone from the list, and check the "Full Control" box. Now hit Advanced and check the box which reads "Replace permission entries on all child objects...". Now OK and OK again. If you see a box saying "Setting folder permissions" let it finish. Then reboot.

calex71

Sounds like your usin gxp home ed?
not sure what set of options you'll
get there but try right clicking the folder
and choose properties then the security tab,
you may see and advanced button
in there what your look ng for is to take ownership
of the files.

Actually here i found this which is much better

How to take ownership of a folder
Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.

If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing when it is not joined to a domain.

For additional information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307874 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874/) How to disable simplified sharing and set permissions on a shared folder in Windows XP
To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps: 1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
5. Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Note folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.
6. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents

Hope this helps

sprinkles

Excellent. Cheers lads, I'll give that a go when I get home, hopefully I'll get my music back