Well,

I don't know what happened. Put the computer on standby last night (with the battery very low) and turned it on this morning to get a flash blue screen of death, and a sorry Windows can't start with all the safe mode options, etc, and all of them never worked.

Then I reinstalled Windows in another directory, and that works. Problem is, all of my data is stuck in My Documents from the other Windows install. The directory exists under cocuments and Settings but I cannot access it.

I tried all kinds of different recovery methods, and they didn't work either. I just need that data. I wound up reinstalling on top of the old install. So that Windows now works, but I get the same thing, I cannot access that folder.

Does anyone know how I can recover that data. It's extremely important to me. Thanks for help.
I will owe you big time if someone knows what I can do to get this solved.

ERIK

 

You have to take ownership of the folder.

1. Right click on the folder and then click on properties.
2. Go to the security tab, (if you don't have the security tab, check my post below for enabling this option).
3. Click advanced,
4. Click on the owner tab, click replace owner on subdirectory and objects, and then highlight your name.

5. After you take ownership of the file, you may have to give yourself security rights. Click add on the security tab, and add your name. Then select allow on all of the check boxes.

 

Try going into

Start>Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt

Then type in
c:
and hit Enter to bring you to the C: prompt

Now type in
cd "Documents and settings" and hit Enter

You probably have subdirectories under here, so type in
Dir
and hit Enter

If you need to go deeper, just keep typing
cd "xxx" where xxx is the next level of directory until you get where you're supposed to be.

If at this point you can see your files when you type in DIR, you're all set.
Go to windows explorer (or whatever it's called in XP) and create a new directory on your D drive (or whatever drive you now have XP on) called Docs, or something.
Then go back to your command window and type
COPY *.* /e/s Docs
and hit Enter

That should copy everything over.

If that doesn't work, and you exhaust all other possibilities, go to www.grc.com and check out his data recovery tools (such as Spinrite). If this stuff is really important to you, you may have to buy a utility to recover the data.

Good luck!
Dave

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by suvh8r
You have to take ownership of the folder.

 

You can, but you have enable advanced security (if I remember right...) isn't there an option under "My computer, folder options, view, for disabling basic security? I can't remember exactly and I do not have it in front of me, but I'm sure it's there in the XP edition I have at home (er.... the "internet" edition )

 

Thanks for the help. suvh8r, you, as you know, we're right on. I had it figured out before I came back to check the board. I had to do it through safe mode, but I'm just glad I got it. Thanks again.

ERIK