my windows XP professional is corrupted cuz of a virus recently. Now i cant run that windows whtsoever. I have tried every possible recovery options. My problem is that i had made my files "private". Now I have connected my harddisk as a slave in another system but i cant access my folder saying "access is denied". Even reinstalling windows wont help i know. Plz Help me to access my files n folders

Hi imaginary, Log on with the Administrator account: press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at the welcome-screen. Then type Administrator into the login-box. The password is probably blank (or give the one you set on it). Then do this: ControlPanel>Folder Options>View page "Use Simple File-sharing" <UNCHECK this in the list of options. Apply. This will give you more control over the security settings for each folder: the 'security' tab will now be visible when you rightclick on a folder for its properties. Select the folder which you can't get access to. Probably: \documents and settings\YourOldUserAccountName\ In Explorer, rightclick on the problemfolder for 'properties', and on the "Security" page, you'll see a list at the top: "Group or user names" Press the Add button. On the next panel, press the "Advanced" button, and then the "Find Now" button which will create a list of all the users and usergroups on your system. From the generated list of users & groups, select the UserAccount that you want to give access to the folder. Press OK twice to add that UserAccount to the list of Accounts/Groups with permission-settings for the problemfolder. Now select that UserAccount in the list on the Security page, and check in the "Permissions for" list below whether that account has ALLOW permissions for every entry (except the special permissions which is probably greyed out) Press OK to apply. If you logon with that UserAccount, you should be able to access the problemfolder now in Explorer. Note: you can also give a UserGroup these permissions, and then add the UserAccount to that UserGroup, but this is a bit of a detour. Ask here first if you're unsure about something. ___________________________________________ ☺ [Belgium, GMT+1]_________________________svg

Thanx pal, thanx a million ... it worked :) I really appreciate cheers

Good to hear you got it working again, imaginary !:) ___________________________________________ ☺ [Belgium, GMT+1]_________________________svg

I have had the same problem... although i run XP Home, where this security option is not available. I therefore hooked my hdd to a friends computer that runs XP proffesional (setting it to a slave) in order to use the XP Pro security functions. (It was attempting to update to XP Pro that brought on this problem in the first place - it failed and i was forced to reinstall Home). Attempting to access the security tab in the folder options on this second hdd, i get the following Security Warning: 'You do not have permission to view or edit the current permission settings for *****, but you can take the ownership or change the auditing settings' I am not able to change the permissions and thus am still unable to access these folders! please help otherwise im gona have to format the drive as i have about 20Gbs in these folders that i cant get to! cheers Dan

Hi Dan, XP Home Edition doesn't have the option of enabling/disabling "Simple file-sharing", but instead, only shows the 'Security' tab in XP SafeMode. To start up in SafeMode: Keep tapping F8 during the restart of your computer. At the very start of the XP loading-process (still black screen), pressing F8 will give you the XP BootMenu, and you can select SafeMode from that. When starting in SafeMode, the Administrator account will probably be listed on the Welcome Screen, but if it's not, then CTRL+ALT+DEL twice on the WelcomeScreen will also work to get the 'old' login-box. **Note: If you don't get onto the XP BootMenu the first time you try F8, then know this: ▫ it may be tricky to get the timing right. Keep tapping F8 - don't hold it pressed in. Try again a few times if it fails. There may be devices (like the Network Adapter configuration) that also use the F8 key to start a menu - so don't press F8 too soon or too late :) ▫ Microsoft calls the BootMenu: Windows Advanced Options menu and this is what they tell you: Press F8 after the firmware POST process completes but before Windows XP Professional displays graphical output. So, right after the memory-tests & such, but before the XP logo + loading bar appear. ___________________________________________ ☺ [Belgium, GMT+1]_________________________svg

Brilliant mate! Got it sorted!! Thanks ALOT!!! Dan