Access to Folders on my Old Hard Drive

[Xyphir]

I recently upgraded to a new PC. In doing so, I took my old hard drive out and hooked it up to my new PC so I would have my old documents. I can get access to my Shared Folders, but I cannot open the user folders under my wife's and my profile. How do I change permissions so I can open the folder?

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

As far as I recall you need to 'take ownership' of the folders. Log in in safe mode as administrator, click properties for the individual folders and take ownership of the folders you need. I think there's a difference in XP Pro and Home as far as this is concerned but I don't remember.

[Sargeras]

Couldn't you just slave the old drive and copy over what you need?

[Xyphir]

I did hook it up as the slave. I have another hard drive as my primary. I don't get a security tab when I check the properties, and don't have access to the files under my old profiles. Very strange. I may just need to fire up my old PC and see if I can transfer them over to the shared folder that way. I just thought there may be a faster way to do it.

[Zaelath]

You have to turn off "simple file sharing" to get the security tabs...

That's under Windows Explorer => Tools => Folder Options => View (tab) => last item on the list "Use simple file sharing" (click it off)

[Xyphir]

The last selection on my view tab is "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items".

[Zaelath]

Running as admin? Oh.... XP Home or Pro? NFI what Home might have in the way of anything useful

[Boogahz]

Yeah, XP Home file sharing is supposedly screwy. Like you're not "supposed" to do it easilly.

[Xyphir]

I'm running XP Home. Thanks for all the advice. I'll either have to purchase XP Pro or set up my old PC so I can pull all that junk off those directories. JOY!

[pyrella]

http://www.winxptutor.com/ownership.htm

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP?
When you access a file or a folder in your system, you may receive an error "Access Denied", which indicates that you don't have permissions to access that folder or the file. Typical scenario where the error is seen is after you reinstall Windows XP and try to access your old profile. If you are an Administrator (or Administrator-level User account) and want to access the contents of the folder, you can take Ownership of that folder or the file.

Prerequisites for taking ownership of a file or a folder
You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative privileges.
If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab. To start Windows XP in Safe Mode, see article Start Windows XP in Safe Mode

For Microsoft Windows XP Professional, you need to disable Simple File Sharing, in order to see the Security tab. To disable simple file sharing, follow these steps: Click Start, and then click My Computer. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box. Click OK.
To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:
Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folder name. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?

All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

where folder name is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.

Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.
To take ownership of a file, follow these steps
Right-click the file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group, and then click OK.

The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file.

[pyrella]

Drolgin said it first btw!

[Xyphir]

That did the trick. Thanks Drolgin, and Py for the step-by-step. It was a little more involved than the instructions led to me believe, but didn't take too long to fix.