Re: disk error occurred

"mumbles27" <mumbles27@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A98DEBA8-B7C1-4EB6-B89A-9DBC7C937A81@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
thank you again Malke..

taking your points in order:

the HP forum arent too bad, HP tech support are terrible so i wontgo near
them. Nothing on the HP forums on this.

I have ll data from this drive backed up apart from these hidden/locked
files [see explanation later], thats my overriding worry before i try the
DOS
commands.

the machine is 3 years old, but hard drive is 3 months old.

the exact text of the error is, that when the machine boots up, just after
the HP logo screen and the screen where you can press f10 to access setup
[the boot screen i assume?] and before it flicks on to the XP pr loading
screen with the XP logo, a line of text comes up and simply says "disk
error
occurred/press ctrl alt del to restart".

these "locked files" are not the hidden files or system files. i dont know
what to call them but when you create a user profile in XP, that user
profile
creates a folder of that username under "documents and settings". Unless
you
specifically change the settings of this folder, to which i havent, this
folder and its subsequent files are not accessable to thjer users of the
machine if you have multi users on one machine.

This is normally a simple permissions issue, dealt with by Taking Ownership.
And it doesn't matter if you have multiple users, the question is NTFS or
FAT.

One of the ways to deal with this without altering the drive is to take an
image of the drive, for example with teh Acronis TrueImage trial, then
mounting the image and taking ownership.

When you plug that drive in
to another machine as a hard drive it wont read that dir as i assume it
looks
at the user and login and sees its not the same user or machine?.

No, this is not what happens. At most, you have to Take Ownership of the
files.

However, there is one context where you *must* log on, and that's if you
have XP Pro and have invoked encryption. If that's the case, the data is
not accessible outside the account unless the account credentials are
imported.


Does that
make sense? i generally unlock this locked dir as i have had major problem
with it before but as i have just completed reinstalling everything on
this
drive, i hadnt got around to it. It holds my 5 substancial outlook pst
files
which is why i need access to it.

Unless you encrypted them, accessing them should be easy. Google Take
Ownership XP, get a USB2 drive case for the laptop drive, and connect the
drive to another XP system. You'll be done in no time.

HTH
-pk



"Malke" wrote:

mumbles27 wrote:
Thank you Malke,


you dont think FIXBOOT or FIXMBR would do any good?

and with regard to getting hold of the files i need, "taking
ownership",
would that solve this problem i have of the files being hidden as they
are
the user profile dir? how would i do that?

No I don't think running software commands on your hard drive would
solve the problem but certainly you can try it. It would be quicker and
easier than dealing with HP tech support and would rule out hardware
issues. You should not lose data but naturally it would be stupid not to
have your data backed up first.

Of course my opinion is based on the information you gave me in your
first post. You didn't quote the exact text of the error message and I
know nothing about the recent history of the machine, its age, etc. I
got the impression that the hard drive had a problem since you mentioned
"disk error" and not something about not being able to find an operating
system. Since I can't see your computer, my impression could certainly
be wrong.

As for taking ownership of the files, you are not making yourself clear
when you say "files being hidden as they are the user profile dir". I
don't know what that means. If you set the host computer (the one to
which you've attached your laptop hard drive) to see all hidden files,
you should have no problem taking ownership of the files. If you used
encryption (EFS), you will still be able to see the files and transfer
them but you should have backed up your encryption key to removal media
before all this happened.

Make sure you are able to see all hidden files and extensions (View tab
in Folder Options). In XP, there are four checkboxes to deal with:

a. Check "Display the contents of system folders".
b. Check "Show hidden files and folders".
c. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".
d. Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" and click "OK" to the
dialog box.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: disk error occurred
    ... these "locked files" are not the hidden files or system files. ... creates a folder of that username under "documents and settings". ... This is normally a simple permissions issue, dealt with by Taking Ownership. ... have XP Pro and have invoked encryption. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: disk error occurred
    ... these "locked files" are not the hidden files or system files. ... creates a folder of that username under "documents and settings". ... This is normally a simple permissions issue, dealt with by Taking Ownership. ... have XP Pro and have invoked encryption. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: disk error occurred
    ... these "locked files" are not the hidden files or system files. ... creates a folder of that username under "documents and settings". ... This is normally a simple permissions issue, dealt with by Taking Ownership. ... have XP Pro and have invoked encryption. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: disk error occurred
    ... these "locked files" are not the hidden files or system files. ... creates a folder of that username under "documents and settings". ... This is normally a simple permissions issue, dealt with by Taking Ownership. ... have XP Pro and have invoked encryption. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
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