Question : Need to gain access to secured folder that has access denied permission problems

I have a client that cannot access their My Document files under their profile due to a new hard drive being installed and the old one being used as a slave.  The client is using Windows XP Media Center.

The client was having problems with old hard drive and called the Geek Squad to fix.  Geek Squad installed a new hard drive and left the old one in for file access.  The issue is that the client wants to access and retrieve a ton of picture files and cannot access the folder which is now on the F: drive because they get access denied permission errors.  

The client is not even sure if the files are still there but because permissions are not allowing access, we cannot even look to see if the files can be retrieved.

The profile that the docs and pictures and files were stored on were under a profile called Owner.  You can browse to the Owner folder, but all subfolders underneath have permission issues.  You cannot share the folder as you get permission access denied errrors.

I have tried to run the command "cacls F:\ /t /e /g Administrators:f" to give Full Control back to the local Adminstrator account, but again, I cannot get past the Owner folder.

What else can I do to basically either wipe out the security settings that were setup previously or take control of the folder with the new profile account that has administrator rights.  I cannot share, take ownership or use the above command to gain access and the client is desperate in trying to gain back more than a years worth of files.

Your comments are very much appreciated.  Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Brenda McNeal
Auburn Mill PC Services

Answer : Need to gain access to secured folder that has access denied permission problems

What was the problem with the old drive?
If the drive is still there and you can acess the data ... you could try modifying the boot.ini and see if you can boot up the old drive then copy the data to a new folder.

if you modify the boot.ini, just make a copy of the current boot line and change the paramter to reference disk(1) .. asumming a normal install this should boot up the old verison ... it might be the rdisk reference I can't remember, try disk first and then rdisk if the first does not work.

All this assuming that taking ownership does not work ... but if you can browse to the folder and see the rest of the drive this should be all you need as it implies the disk is not encrypted ... good though on that though!