can't get at 'my documents' on old drive

I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade the drives,
so replaced both of them one at a time, rebuilding the mirror, so that I
ended up with a mirrored drive that would have much bigger capacity.
Unfortunately, the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand
the size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I ended
up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb but with only a
40Gb mirrored partition on it.

So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to work but
left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried to 'repair' windows
by going back to the master disk with service pack one, which has a
'repair' option at installation. However, it just logs you on but
doesn't appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it to
repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I tried then, but
didn't do anything drastic. However I ended up with the drives just
booting part way into windows and then stopping at the same point each
time.

So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of reinstalling
windows and all my applications again on one of the drives after
removing it from the mirror, then copy all 'my documents' across by
having the other ex-mirrored drive as a spare drive, until all that was
done and then rebuild the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything
in the program files directory, but when I try to access documents
belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old configuration, it
says "access denied". I've set up the same user profile and password on
the new installation, so how do I get at the old 'my documents' folder
when I can't boot directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only
person who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?

Mike Hersee


--
herseem

In herseem.206meh@pcbanter.net herseem wrote:
> I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade
> the drives, so replaced both of them one at a time,
> rebuilding the mirror, so that I ended up with a mirrored
> drive that would have much bigger capacity. Unfortunately,
> the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand the
> size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I
> ended up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb
> but with only a 40Gb mirrored partition on it.
>
> So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to
> work but left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried
> to 'repair' windows by going back to the master disk with
> service pack one, which has a 'repair' option at
> installation. However, it just logs you on but doesn't
> appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it
> to repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I
> tried then, but didn't do anything drastic. However I ended
> up with the drives just booting part way into windows and
> then stopping at the same point each time.
>
> So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of
> reinstalling windows and all my applications again on one of
> the drives after removing it from the mirror, then copy all
> 'my documents' across by having the other ex-mirrored drive
> as a spare drive, until all that was done and then rebuild
> the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything in the
> program files directory, but when I try to access documents
> belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old
> configuration, it says "access denied". I've set up the same
> user profile and password on the new installation, so how do
> I get at the old 'my documents' folder when I can't boot
> directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only person
> who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?
>
> Mike Hersee
>
>
> --
> herseem

You need to take ownership of the files. Take a look here for
the procedure:

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;308421

Note: 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 in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your
keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

Nepatsfan Wrote:
> In herseem.206meh@pcbanter.net herseem wrote:
> I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade
> the drives, so replaced both of them one at a time,
> rebuilding the mirror, so that I ended up with a mirrored
> drive that would have much bigger capacity. Unfortunately,
> the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand the
> size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I
> ended up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb
> but with only a 40Gb mirrored partition on it.
>
> So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to
> work but left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried
> to 'repair' windows by going back to the master disk with
> service pack one, which has a 'repair' option at
> installation. However, it just logs you on but doesn't
> appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it
> to repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I
> tried then, but didn't do anything drastic. However I ended
> up with the drives just booting part way into windows and
> then stopping at the same point each time.
>
> So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of
> reinstalling windows and all my applications again on one of
> the drives after removing it from the mirror, then copy all
> 'my documents' across by having the other ex-mirrored drive
> as a spare drive, until all that was done and then rebuild
> the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything in the
> program files directory, but when I try to access documents
> belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old
> configuration, it says "access denied". I've set up the same
> user profile and password on the new installation, so how do
> I get at the old 'my documents' folder when I can't boot
> directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only person
> who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?
>
> Mike Hersee
>
>
> --
> herseem
>
> You need to take ownership of the files. Take a look here for
> the procedu
>
> How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
> http://tinyurl.com/3aw7
>
> Note: 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 in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
> start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
> on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
> Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your
> keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter.
>
> Good luck
>
> Nepatsfan

Thank you Nepatsfan. I discovered by a painful process of trial and
error that the XP installation on my old drive was obviously
sufficiently corrupted that it would not complete booting by itself,
but the reason it suddenly decided to start booting again was because I
was booting it with my new XP drive accessible. Windows was taking some
of its settings and info from the old drive, and very naughtily, some
from the new drive, and allowing it to complete booting. But by doing
so it was also corrupting my XP installation on my new drive, so when I
booted from that instead, I had lost critical information and data that
was not being remembered when I repeatedly booted from the new drive. I
had to use system restore to retrieve things so that they worked
properly again. This is clearly very bad behaviour by windows XP that
it allows things to happen this way. And before you ask, I have every
official update going and nothing fancy extra.

I have now recovered most of my data and just have some other things to
get that I didn't get the first time. Thanks for pointing me in the
right direction.

Mike Hersee


--
herseem

In herseem.20tm73@pcbanter.net herseem wrote:
> Nepatsfan Wrote:
>> In herseem.206meh@pcbanter.net herseem wrote:
>> I had a mirrored drive with windows XP and wanted to upgrade
>> the drives, so replaced both of them one at a time,
>> rebuilding the mirror, so that I ended up with a mirrored
>> drive that would have much bigger capacity. Unfortunately,
>> the mirror card (SIL 0680) doesn't automatically expand the
>> size of the mirrored space to fit the drives available, so I
>> ended up with a potential mirrored drive capacity of 250Gb
>> but with only a 40Gb mirrored partition on it.
>>
>> So I deleted the mirror and recreated it, which appeared to
>> work but left windows not behaving quite correctly. I tried
>> to 'repair' windows by going back to the master disk with
>> service pack one, which has a 'repair' option at
>> installation. However, it just logs you on but doesn't
>> appear to give access to much and I don't know how to use it
>> to repair a windows installation. I can't remember what I
>> tried then, but didn't do anything drastic. However I ended
>> up with the drives just booting part way into windows and
>> then stopping at the same point each time.
>>
>> So I decided I'd go through the laborious process of
>> reinstalling windows and all my applications again on one of
>> the drives after removing it from the mirror, then copy all
>> 'my documents' across by having the other ex-mirrored drive
>> as a spare drive, until all that was done and then rebuild
>> the mirror again. I can certainly get at anything in the
>> program files directory, but when I try to access documents
>> belonging to my user profile I'd set up on the old
>> configuration, it says "access denied". I've set up the same
>> user profile and password on the new installation, so how do
>> I get at the old 'my documents' folder when I can't boot
>> directly from that drive? I surely can't be the only person
>> who's discovered this paradox. Any suggestions?
>>
>> Mike Hersee
>>
>>
>> --
>> herseem
>>
>> You need to take ownership of the files. Take a look here
>> for the procedu
>>
>> How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
>> http://tinyurl.com/3aw7
>>
>> Note: 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 in Safe Mode, reboot
>> your computer and start tapping the F8 key as soon as you
>> see anything displayed on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until
>> the Advanced Startup Options menu appears. Use the up and
>> down arrow keys on your keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit
>> Enter.
>>
>> Good luck
>>
>> Nepatsfan
>
> Thank you Nepatsfan. I discovered by a painful process of
> trial and error that the XP installation on my old drive was
> obviously sufficiently corrupted that it would not complete
> booting by itself, but the reason it suddenly decided to
> start booting again was because I was booting it with my new
> XP drive accessible. Windows was taking some of its settings
> and info from the old drive, and very naughtily, some from
> the new drive, and allowing it to complete booting. But by
> doing so it was also corrupting my XP installation on my new
> drive, so when I booted from that instead, I had lost
> critical information and data that was not being remembered
> when I repeatedly booted from the new drive. I had to use
> system restore to retrieve things so that they worked
> properly again. This is clearly very bad behaviour by
> windows XP that it allows things to happen this way. And
> before you ask, I have every official update going and
> nothing fancy extra.
>
> I have now recovered most of my data and just have some
> other things to get that I didn't get the first time. Thanks
> for pointing me in the right direction.
>
> Mike Hersee
>
>
> --
> herseem

Glad to hear you're making progress.

Good luck

Nepatsfan