New computer with Win XP Home can't find data on second drive 1

[CFray]

I am helping a friend recover data from a drive that is from his old computer. The old computer was damaged, so he ordered a new Dell unit.

Both the new computer and the old one use WinXP home as the OS. The installation of the old hard drive into the new computer has been successful except for the really important part--the data. I can access every folder of the older hard disk EXCEPT for the data folder where the critical data was kept. Stated another way: The entire folder structure is intact on the old drive, and Windows Explorer lists the old "My Documents" folder properly, but when I click on that folder icon in the folder list, the OS throws up an error that says "Access denied. F:\Documents and Settings\E is not accessible", where "E" is the name of the folder, not any drive specification.

I googled support.microsoft.com with "access denied", but all the (nearly) relevant answers pertain to XP Pro in a multi user environment, and thus don't apply. I KNOW that the data is supposed to be in that folder, but it is inaccessible for some reason. The really puzzling part for me is that the entire folder structure is intact on the old drive, which tells me that the data should be there.

I would appreciate any suggestions to resolve this issue.

Thanks!

C Fray

 

[kiddpete]

Did your friend chanhe the user name on the new machine? Are you logged in to the administrator account.

 

[micker377]

Did you try the drive in question in a different computer?

 

[Freestone]

It's an access rights issue. See:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

 

[CFray]

Thank you all for responding.

Kiddpete: Yes, the user name is different than the user name on the old computer. Yes, the user name has all administrator privileges.

Micker: No. The old hard drive has only been installed on its original computer, and this second (newer) one.

Freestone: I appreciate the link. I will have to log in as the Administrator in safe mode the next time I go to my friend's house. I knew it had something to do with access rights and accounts, but the solutions that I had previously found kept mentioning the Security tab under Properties. I had been unable to call up a Security tab.

I will post here again later when I have solved this issue with your help. I may not be able to attack this for several days, but I will post back later.

C Fray

 

[nipester]

Any chance that the folder was also encrypted? EFS does come with XP pro. In that case the recovery would be more complex than logging in as an admin.

 

[CFray]

Nipester, Thank you for your response. No, the folder was not encrypted, and both computers (were and) are running XP Home.

Freestone, I was able to recover the data with the information in the MSKB article you provided. A couple of things were different than I thought they would be. I assumed that once I was able to change the ownership of the folder and all its contents, that it would be available in Windows Explorer once I logged back in in standard (not Safe) mode. I tried twice, threw in the towel, and then tried another tack.

While in Safe Mode, I copied the data that I wanted from the old (previously inaccessible) folder onto the new drive in its own folder. That worked like a charm. All my friend's data is intact. All I have to do now is reinstall Eudora, and point it to the new folder, and he'll be back in business.

Thank you all for your suggestions, and I hope that anyone else with a similar problem can track down this solution. It will be another week or so before we have my friend's computer where it needs to be, but the hard part is now done. We've recovered several years worth of data stretching back over two previous computers.

Cheers!

C Fray