Have my photos gone for good?

aliasojo

Decado23 wrote: »

....right click the parent folder, select properties then the 'security' tab.
a message should appear telling you you don't have permission to change the settings but you can take ownership, click ok.
Click the 'advanced' button.
Select the 'owner' tab.
select your user name inthe 'change owner to:' list
tick the 'replace owner on subcontainers and objects' box
Click ok
... wait a bit, depending on how many files are in there - if something pops up saying 'you don't have acces to this, that or the other, do you want to replace the permissions and give yourself full control' (NOT exact wording, can't remember that level of detail), say yes, yes to all or OK (again, can't remember specifically).


the above instructions should be good for Win XP pro, there may be slight diferences in other versions.

I can't find the above. Any ideas?

[Deleted User]

aliasojo wrote: »

I can't find the above. Any ideas?

Dare I say it's a FAT32 file system... If so you'll only see 3 tabs (General, Sharing and Customise) when right clicking on a folder as FAT file systems don't implement granular security like NTFS

DontBeAWageSlave

Security tab is hidden by default. You have to open My Computer, Tools > Folder Options > click on the View Tab, and then scroll to bottom of list and untick "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)".
Then you should see the Security tab as described above.

Incisor

aliasojo wrote: »

I can't find the above. Any ideas?

Are you logged on with administrator level permissions?

Browntoa

if you had a password on your user account on the old PC it won't let you access them , you may get them by using a linux boot CD like Ubuntu

Browntoa

Right click your folder .. go to properties -- security -- advanced -- uncheck "inherit from parent the permission entries .." Then click add and add your user to the allow list ... and then select the owner tab and take ownership of the folder. Now access your folder. Most probably you can access it now ..

NOTE: You must be a member of Administrator's group to take ownership of the folder

Browntoa

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=308421

aliasojo

Ok guys got them!

I linked the old hard drive to the new pc we bought yesterday that's runnning Vista, instead of the laptop (which had XP) and I saw the process first mentioned above. Followed the steps and I've got the photos and docs back.

God I really, really wish I could buy you all a drink. I'm so happy. Some of the photos were from our only proper family holiday abroad and I had practical pics that I needed to support our building warrant stuff. I also has some quite important Word Docs that I'd have struggled a bit without.

I'm backing them all up now, as I type. :rolleyes:

I honestly can't thank you all enough, I thought I'd lost the lot for good. You're all brilliant! :beer: