Hi

Michael Solomon MS-MVP Wrote

If you are able to boot as you say but are not able to access some files i
might be a file ownership issue
Note, file ownership and permissions supersede administrator rights.  Ho
you resolve it depends upon which version of XP you are running

***********XP-Home***********

Unfortunately, XP Home using NTFS is essentially hard wired for "Simple Fil
Sharing" at system level

However, you can set XP Home permissions in Safe Mode.  Reboot, and star
hitting F8, a menu should eventually appear and one of th
options is Safe Mode.  Select it.  Note, it will ask for the administrator'
password.  This is not your administrator account, rather it is th
machine's administrator account for which users are asked to create
password during setup

If you created no such password, when requested, leave blank and pres
enter

Open Explorer, go to Tools and Folder Options, on the view tab, scroll t
the bottom of the list, if it shows "Enable Simple File Sharing" deselect i
and click apply and ok.  If it shows nothing or won't let you make a change
move on to the next step

Navigate to the files, right click, select properties, go to the Securit
tab, click advanced, go to the Owner tab and select the user that was logge
on when you were refused permission to access the files.  Click apply an
ok.  Close the properties box, reopen it, click add and type in the name o
the user you just enabled.  If you wish to set ownership for everything i
the folder, at the bottom of the Owner tab is the following selection
"Replace owner on subcontainers and objects," select it as well

Once complete, you should be able to do what you wish with these files whe
you log back on as that user

**********XP-Pro************

If you have XP Pro, temporarily change the limited account t
administrative.  First, go to Windows Explorer, go to Tools, select Folde
Options, go to the View tab and be sure "Use Simple File Sharing" is no
selected.  If it is, deselect it and click apply and ok

If you wish everything in a specific folder to be accessible to a user
right click the folder, select properties, go to the Security tab, clic
Advanced, go to the Owner tab
select the user you wish to have access, at the bottom of the box, yo
should see a check box for "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects,
place a check in the box and click apply and ok

The user should now be able to perform necessary functions on files in th
folder even as a limited account.  If not, make it an admin account again
right click the folder, select Properties, go to the Security tab and b
sure the user is listed in the user list.  If not, click add and type th
user name in the appropriate box, be sure the user has all the necessar
permissions checked in the permission list below the user list, click appl
and ok

That should do it and allow whatever access you desire for that folder eve
in a limited account

After you have successfully gained access to the all the data files of your old Hdd, copy all the files to the C drive and then you can re-format the slave drive

Hope it helps

Pete

   
    ----- Hans wrote: ----
   
    I don't know how to describe this perfectly... I'll do my
    best in explaining, please bear with me
   
    I have 2 hard drives, a primary and a slave one of
    course.  For some reason this morning, the primary was
    turned from drive C to drive G; the slave was turned from
    drive D to drive H
   
    What I did was to disconnect all drives except for the
    primary drive and booted the system.  But I wasn't able to
    boot anymore, I can however view the files via systems
    recovery of the windows xp cd
   
    So what I did was to change the jumpers of both primary
    and slave drives to make my old drive C a drive D and vice
    versa.  Then I installed a fresh windows xp on the new
    drive C, it worked smoothly
   
    Afterwards, I connected my old drive C with the intention
    of converting it into drive D.  Windows has detected the
    drive yet there's no drive D icon.  But according to the
    device manager, the drive is working perfectly.  I also
    used administrative tools to check the drive,
    it's "online" and identified as "basic" and "active".  It
    even stated I have 74% free (I didn't reformat the drive).
   
    Despite its proof of presence in my pc, no drive letter
    was assigned to it.  I was trying to assign one with the
    said tool but upon right-clicking, the only "clickable"
    option is delete partition and help!
   
    Getting desperate, I tried rebooting and load the windows
    xp pro cd again.  Hoping to have another shot at the
    systems recovery to regain my documents.  Funny thing is I
    was able to access it through SR and the drive was
    assigned as drive D.  I can view the files yet can't copy
    the content of documents and settings because access is
    denied (in spite of my administrator privilege of my OWN
    pc grrr).  In the SR environment, I can only
    add/delete/view files within the root directory of drive D
    and the old windows directory.  I also tried safe mode
    hoping I can access my files.
   
    Please, can someone help me how I can assign a drive
    letter?  Or how can I access my files?  I'm really
    desperate and don't want to reformat it soon until all
    possibilities have been tried.
   
    Any help and suggestion is appreciated, thanks!