Enchantermon on 28/8/2009 at 22:28
Having recently switched out the hard drives on my laptop, I want to transfer some things to the new drive. Old one had XP, new one has Vista. I have the old drive connected through an external case. The problem is that, through Vista, I can't view the contents of any folders XP drive deeper than my user's folder inside Documents and Settings. When I try, Vista tells me that I need to take ownership of the folders. The problem is that it also tells me that if I do so, the old owner may not have access to those files anymore. This is not acceptable, because I still want to be able to boot into XP if I need to, and if I do, I want to have access to all of the files that I may have left in My Documents or wherever (I don't plan on copying everything over).
If I boot into XP, I can copy something from My Documents to the root of my Vista drive and then access it through Vista just fine, but this isn't practical for my needs, as I want to be able to access whatever I need when I need it. Plus, I don't want clutter in the root. I did remove the password from my XP account (again, not practical), but that didn't change anything.
So does anyone know if I really will lose access to the files through XP if I change the owner? If so, any ideas of a workaround? Thanks.
Also, a bit OT, but my CD-Rom drive randomly ejected itself today. This is the first time it happened, and it seemed to do it right after I ejected my external hard drive (though that may have been a coincidence). Any thoughts?
Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 02:43
Any ideas at all? I just tried taking ownership of a file today. I can now view its Security tab, but I am still denied access to copy it from my old hard drive to the new one. What's the deal? Isn't there any way around these crazy permissions?
Al_B on 12/9/2009 at 09:15
If you're not worried about the files being visible to other accounts with access to your XP hard drive, then boot into XP, go to the security tab, edit the permissions and add "everyone" (you'll need to type it). Make sure you give "everyone" at least read permissions (or full control if you're lazy and trust yourself on your PC).
That way, the owner of the folder should stay associated with the XP user but you should then be able to get to the files in Vista. Alternatively, you should be able to add "users" to the files / directories in Vista once you've taken ownership.
(By the way - if the "Security" tab isn't visible in XP then make sure you turn off simple file sharing. Within Windows Explorer go to "Tools / Options" then the view tab and at the bottom of the advanced settings should be a checkbox "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)". Turn that off and you should be able to see which users have permissions for each file or directory).
bikerdude on 12/9/2009 at 12:21
download and install " unlocker"
(
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/)
This has bludgeoned vista into doing what I want it to regardless of what it thinks...
Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 13:52
Wow, I feel like an idiot now...
I already had Unlocker but it never occurred to me to use it. Seems like I still have to change the ownership, though, otherwise Unlocker isn't even allowed to access the drive. Sheesh, what a headache. I'll see if what Al_B suggested will let Unlocker access the files. Thanks, guys!
Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 14:56
Great.
Okay, so I moved a file with Unlocker like I already said. Then, since Unlocker couldn't access the rest without messing with the permissions in Vista, I switched out the drives and brought XP out of hibernation. Oops, it realizes that the file isn't there anymore and deems it corrupt. Psql.exe pops up an error telling me this and that I should run CHKDSK. Fine. I'm guessing that there are some pointers in the file system that now point to nothing. I'll get to that. First, I try to mass change the permissions on C: to Everyone as suggested. Whoops, can't do that, because the drive is corrupt. Assuming it's talking about the missing file, I bring up the Command Prompt and run CHKDSK. I forgot that I needed the /F to actually fix the problems, but it seemed to be fixing them anyway, strangely enough. But after the first phase it said it couldn't continue in read-only mode. Okay, fine, /F it is. Oh, but it can't do that either, because the volume is in use. Schedule a run at next boot? Sure, why not? Restart the computer. I got the same Psql error message on the way out. Don't care, I'm about to fix this.
Except...blue screen. I try Safe Mode. Same thing. Last Known Good Configuration. Same.
Error code on the blue screen: STOP: 0x00000024 (0x00190203, 0x8B39F008, 0xC0000102, 0x00000000). A Google search on the hex brings me nothing. When trying to load safe mode, I noticed that the error occurred while trying to load sptd.sys (which I'm told is a Daemon Tools file), but even if I cancel its loading the blue screen will appear before trying to go any further.
So have I completely destroyed XP now? Just by moving that one file?
Oh, and guess what? Vista can't even access the drive anymore either. Says it's corrupt.
EDIT: Okay, calming down...
For some reason, I though that CHKDSK was axed in Vista, but I discovered that it wasn't, so I ran it and it repaired the drive. I can now boot into it, although things are a bit different. The taksbar is thinner than it is supposed to be; it was locked before and it is now, so I'm not missing the resize bar, it's just...thinner. The small amount of empty space at the bottom is gone.
Also, my wireless NIC doesn't seem to be working, either. It's detected in Device Manager and not producing an error (the driver is still there), but ipconfig says the media is disconnected. Of course, it works fine in Vista. I tried disabling and enabling it, and nothing. Also, I can't seem to right-click on anything in the Device Manager, which concerns me.
All in all, it seems to be mostly back to normal. I could possibly grab my Toshiba recovery disk and see if that can fix anything without wiping the hard drive, would that be worth trying? I'm asking because I'd have to drive an hour and a half to get to it. :erg:
Also, sorry for the irritable nature of the original section of this post, I was afraid I was going to lose a ton of stuff.
Al_B on 12/9/2009 at 16:21
Which file was it that you removed? If it wasn't a system file then it shouldn't cause the problem you're describing. I suspect that because XP was in hibernation and not shut down that may have caused the problem (but that's only a theory).
Two things to try: Enter safe mode with command prompt and run scandisk from there. Secondly, if you have a XP disk then boot from that and start the recovery console. You should be able to run scandisk on your drive.
If none of the above work then you may be able to get to your XP partition from a Linux boot CD (e.g. (
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html) Knoppix).
Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 16:23
It was just a video file. I just edited my post (didn't realize you were writing one of your own); got any ideas on how to fix the remaining issues?
Al_B on 12/9/2009 at 16:37
If you plug a monitor into the laptop can you see the full task bar on that? If you were using a monitor then I'd suspect that it's just down to the monitor settings and that the screen display was being cut-off at the bottom. With the "Windows classic" theme I can see the very tip of the mouse pointer even if it is right at the bottom of the screen.
Can you see any wireless networks with the wireless connection? It will obviously say media disconnected until you've actually made a connection to a wireless network. If not, then perhaps re-installing the wireless drivers may help.
Not being able to right-click in the device manager does sound strange. If you select something does the right windows key (if you have one on your laptop) bring up the context menu?
Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 16:48
Quote Posted by Al_B
If you plug a monitor into the laptop can you see the full task bar on that? If you were using a monitor then I'd suspect that it's just down to the monitor settings and that the screen display was being cut-off at the bottom. With the "Windows classic" theme I can see the very tip of the mouse pointer even if it is right at the bottom of the screen.
I don't have a monitor that I can test this with. It must have been something configured in Windows that chkdsk reset, though; the taskbar was exactly the same until all these shenanigans took place.
Quote Posted by Al_B
Can you see any wireless networks with the wireless connection? It will obviously say media disconnected until you've actually made a connection to a wireless network. If not, then perhaps re-installing the wireless drivers may help.
That's the thing...the Wireless Connection Utility that usually shows up in the taskbar isn't present. I should have checked Network Places, though...I'll do that. I would have already reinstalled the drivers, except I can't uninstall the old ones (since I can't right-click the device in Device Manager).
Quote Posted by Al_B
Not being able to right-click in the device manager does sound strange. If you select something does the right windows key (if you have one on your laptop) bring up the context menu?
Didn't try that; I never use that key, so I usually forget that it exists. :p I'll report back (probably with an edit).
