I Cant Get To Any Of My Files!

Some of you may remember the probs I had with windows installer and I explained that it was solved by performing a "new installation" of XP PRO.

This worked well till I came to one thing, my documents, remembered that it's now a new folder so I had to go to C:\documents and sett .... but when I tried to open my previous documents folder I'm told it's either write protected or being used so can't be acessed.

I used to have a password on it and made my files private so what can I do to get to the folder, and here's the reason why:

ALL my films\movies are in there
My Music folder holds ALL my music
And I had all my important schoolwork and software stored there.

and I can't get to any of it, please help! :(

The only thing i can suggest is to try accessing the folder from DOS... not the XP Dos, but an older one, preferrable get a Win9x startup disk or something... use Volcov Commander (Google search for it) and add it to your startup disk to browse easily from DOS. I don't know what else you can do...

Hope the proceedure suggested by Ynhockey works. Otherwise Try booting with DOS under Windows Safe mode. And then try copying all those files if you can access to your some other directory in new Win XP.

Edit: And let us know the updates.
Goodluck! TRshady

Thanks for the suggestions, only problem is: I can't use dos. :blink:

Only things like Fdisk, Format, CHKDSK etc but nothing like viewing folders.

The folder is C:\Documents and Settings\TRshady

Could you kindly explain how I would go out moving the files please?

edit: Just gonna try volcov commander.

You can try this trick but I don't guarantee your security afterwards. This is so easy to do I'm surprised it still works and I did expect there'd be a patch before now. I was told there had been one in one of the new XP updates but I did this a couple of months ago so give it a shot.

From DOS or another installed system(the easiest way) , just delete this file>

\WINDOWS\system32\config\SAM

When you restart the system you want into, don't enter anything, just press enter.

There are no user databases stored now because windows has replaced the one you deleted with a new SAM.

See if that takes care of your password protected folders as well.

C:\>del /?
Deletes one or more files.

DEL [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names
ERASE [/P] [/F] [/S] [/Q] [/A[[:]attributes]] names

names Specifies a list of one or more files or directories.
Wildcards may be used to delete multiple files. If a
directory is specified, all files within the directory
will be deleted.

/P Prompts for confirmation before deleting each file.
/F Force deleting of read-only files.
/S Delete specified files from all subdirectories.
/Q Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to delete on global wildcard
/A Selects files to delete based on attributes
attributes R Read-only files S System files
H Hidden files A Files ready for archiving
- Prefix meaning not

If Command Extensions are enabled DEL and ERASE change as follows:

The display semantics of the /S switch are reversed in that it shows
you only the files that are deleted, not the ones it could not find.

Quote:

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Originally posted by TRshady@17 June 2003 - 03:00
Thanks for the suggestions, only problem is: I can't use dos. :blink:

Only things like Fdisk, Format, CHKDSK etc but nothing like viewing folders.

The folder is C:\Documents and Settings\TRshady

Could you kindly explain how I would go out moving the files please?

edit: Just gonna try volcov commander.

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maybe its the permissions that are causing the problem. try changing those and see if it helps.

Here's another Dos command you can try if the SAM trick doesn't work. You may still be asked for a password but your admin pass may work from Dos.

C:\>copy /?
Copies one or more files to another location.

COPY [/V] [/N] [/Y | /-Y] [/Z] [/A | /B ] source [/A | /B]
[+ source [/A | /B] [+ ...]] [destination [/A | /B]]

source Specifies the file or files to be copied.
/A Indicates an ASCII text file.
/B Indicates a binary file.
destination Specifies the directory and/or filename for the new file(s).
/V Verifies that new files are written correctly.
/N Uses short filename, if available, when copying a file with a
non-8dot3 name.
/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/-Y Causes prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an
existing destination file.
/Z Copies networked files in restartable mode.

The switch /Y may be preset in the COPYCMD environment variable.
This may be overridden with /-Y on the command line. Default is
to prompt on overwrites unless COPY command is being executed from
within a batch script.
To append files, specify a single file for destination, but multiple files
for source (using wildcards or file1+file2+file3 format).

So the command should look like >

C:>copy /V C:\Documents and Settings\TRshady C:\Documents and Settings\TRshady\desktop\newfolder or something like that.
take a look at this for an easier explanation>
http://www.nmsu.edu/~CandN/DOCS/PC/DOCS.pc_dos.html

Thanks for the replies people. :)

I can't work out how to use volkov commander.

The sam trick sounds fairly easy to do but how do I delete it in dos?

It's so confusing your last guide to dos. :(

to do sam trick go to dos promt and type

"del C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SAM"

its doubtful this will work

if u are useing NTFS and u used the password protect feacher in win xp for folders or encripted it

it may work if its just ur defualt my documents folder that ur trying to get

basicly u need to rember ur old password for the folder or ur windows log on depending on wich way u encripted it

Thanks mate, tried the prompt but I'm told "path not found". :(

edit: YAY!!!!!!!, Its solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they prog got floppy programs that'll allow access to all kinds of files on different file systems. I know windows like environments can be run off floppys. Mouse, browser, 16 colors..

Quote:

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Originally posted by TRshady@17 June 2003 - 17:27
Thanks mate, tried the prompt but I'm told "path not found". :(

edit: YAY!!!!!!!, Its solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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How ? what worked?

I was getting really annoyed as I just couldn't get the hang of dos so went into safe mode and signed in as 'administrator'. Then I was trying out different things and came used the security tab in the folder properties to change the owner from 'unknown' to TRshady (my account now) and also checked the box the change all sub folders and it took around five minutes, I restarted, logged in my account and moved the files over. :D

Thanks again for all your help and sorry if you think I wasted your time by not doing it with your suggestions, but I did try them.

No problem, whatever works. And your tried and tested solutions are here for others to benefit from!

Quote:

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Originally posted by TRshady@17 June 2003 - 12:27
edit: YAY!!!!!!!, Its solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Sorry didnt log on here for few days so couldnt reply to your next question.
Good job! in fixing B)