I need to reformat a laptop hard drive for a lady. Her computer will not boot (winxp media edition). I have taken her hard drive out and am accessing it just fine from my laptop (usb connection, winxp pro). I believe she has made all her files private. I think this because when I go to Documents and Settings and then hover over her folder it tells me there are 0 files and 0 bytes in that folder. When I click on it I am denied access. However, when I run a chkdsk I saw that it accessed her folder and saw (checked) all of her files. So the files are there, but it will not let me copy them. Strange that it tells me 0 files and 0 bytes when the files actually are there. Anyway, how can I copy these files so I can recover her hard drive?

Try xcopy xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\her folder\her folder\*.*" "?:\Your folder" /s /g /h /r /c Need the " if spaces in path

Take ownership of the folder and files. How to here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421 "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Is this problem solved and if so, what worked?

Okay, I got it solved. Taking ownership was the key. I had right clicked on the folder itself and tried to change permissions, but that didn't take. Finally I learned to right click on the drive go to "properties/security/advanced/owners and then selected the checkbox "apply to folders and subfolders." It took nearly an hour to change ownership to my admin login, but when it was done I could access and copy her files. What a feeling that was! Thanks for your help.