Re: Problem re-installing XP

I think there is one important detail missing in your highly
detailed and informative reply:

*** All important files must be backed up to an independent
*** medium once a week (or perhaps more often).

The OP experienced an increasing number of glitches. In spite
of this he did not back up his data files for more than a month,
thus painting himself into a corner.


"usasma" <usasma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6F3D2C30-F453-4DED-9C0A-21E26A3EBC58@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> This is actually a fairly common problem with reinstalls. So much so that
I
> typed this up and saved it (can't take credit for the idea tho) for a user
on
> another forum:
>
> First we have to enable access to the files and take ownership of them.
You
> must be using an account with Administrator privileges for this step:
>
> "To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then
take
> ownership of the folder:
> 1. Turn off Simple File Sharing:
> a. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
> b. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
> c. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing
> (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.
> 2. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then
click
> Properties.
> 3. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if
one
> appears.
> 4. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
> 5. In the Name list, click your user name, 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, click to
> select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
> 6. Click OK.
>
> You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of
the
> folder that you want to take ownership of:
> You do not have permission to read the contents of directory Folder. Do
you
> want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you
Full
> Control? All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
> 7. Click Yes.
> 8. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that
you
> want for the folder and the folder contents."
>
> The above steps will give you the ability to view and manipulate the files
> in the old user profiles.
>
> - Next, we have to copy the data from the old profile to the new one.
Here's
> the steps for it:
>
> "Create a New User Profile in Windows XP Professional
> 1. Log on as the Administrator or as a user with administrator
credentials.
> 2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
> 3. Click User Accounts.
> 4. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Advanced.
> 5. In the left pane, click the Users folder.
> 6. On the Action menu, click New User.
> 7. Enter the appropriate user information, and then click Create.
>
>
> Create a New User Profile in Windows XP Home Edition
> 1. Log on as the Administrator or as a user with administrator
credentials.
> 2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
> 3. Click User Accounts.
> 4. Under Pick a task, click Create a new account.
> 5. Type a name for the user information, and then click Next.
> 6. Click an account type, and then click Create Account.
>
>
> Copy Files to the New User Profile
> 1. Log on as a user other than the user whose profile you are copying
files
> to or from.
> 2. In Windows Explorer, click Tools, click Folder Options, click the View
> tab, click Show hidden files and folders, click to clear the Hide
protected
> operating system files check box, and then click OK.
> 3. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\Old_Username folder, where C is
the
> drive on which Windows XP is installed, and Old_Username is the name of
the
> profile you want to copy user data from.
> 4. Press and hold down the CTRL key while you click each file and
subfolder
> in this folder, except the following files:
> . Ntuser.dat
> . Ntuser.dat.log
> . Ntuser.ini
> 5. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
> 6. Locate the C:\Documents and Settings\New_Username folder, where C is
the
> drive on which Windows XP is installed, and New_Username is the name of
the
> user profile that you created in the "Create a New User Profile" section.
> 7. On the Edit menu, click Paste.
> 8. Log off the computer, and then log on as the new user.
>
> Note You must import your e-mail messages and addresses to the new user
> profile before you delete the old profile.
> For additional information, click the following article number to view the
> article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
> 313055 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313055/) OLEXP: Mail Folders,
> Address Book, and E-mail Messages Are Missing After You Upgrade to
Microsoft
> Windows XP
>
> - The steps that we'll have to do are outlined in these 3 Knowledge Base
> articles:
>
> "Access is Denied" Error Message When You Try to Open a Folder
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;810881
>
> How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421
>
> How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile:
> http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811151
>
> - Finally, it's been my experience that taking ownership of files can be a
> bit "flakey" at times, and you may even have to individually grant the
> permissions to each sub-folder in the old user profile. Please let me know
> how these instructions have worked for you.
>
>
> "Jon Green" wrote:
>
> > but please help.
> > After a week of increasing glitches and hangs my computer internet LAN
link
> > failed then the computer locked up in the Zone Alarm start phase of set
up.
> > I could not get it to start in 'safe' mode so I decided to try to start
it
> > off the XP CD ROM..Ok so I probably made the problem worse by doing
this.
> >
> > That worked and the computer is up but I cannot open my old files -
access
> > denied. This is a BIG problem as my security & WLAN encryption codes
are in
> > those files so no internet, no XP registration, no firewall. Also I
cannot
> > start some programs e.g. Office. I would be happy to completely
re-install
> > if I could get to my files to copy back up for the last months work.
> >
> > Now I may have used a different 'computer name' this time. SO how can I
> > open those files saved under a different computer name? or can I
re-name the
> > computer now?
> >
> > Grateful for any advice


.

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