# windows problem, please help!!!

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by the subtle knife (Account disabled) on Saturday, 16-Feb-2008 9:58:24

hey, it's rob here. i just had to re-install windows coz of virus problems etc. i selected the option to keep all the files on the hard drive so they wouldn't get erased when i had re-installed it. the thing is, now that i have a cleaner version of windows, when i try to access my old files in c:documents and settingsrobert, it says "access denied". i've tried all the methods that i can think of to get my files back, but none of them will work. i think the message is coming up coz i had a password on there. anyone got an idea?
thanks
rob

## Post 2 by the subtle knife (Account disabled) on Saturday, 16-Feb-2008 12:18:06

?

## Post 3 by changedheart421 (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Saturday, 16-Feb-2008 14:24:38

ok

## Post 4 by margorp (I've got the gold prolific poster award, now is there a gold cup for me?) on Saturday, 16-Feb-2008 15:15:00

wow, you should never keep your files like that. Now the computer thinks your someone else.
Wow...that sucks.

## Post 5 by jrimer (Please visit my home page at http://personal.wbby.us.) on Saturday, 16-Feb-2008 20:28:59

This is definately interesting. I would';ve backed up the files someplace else. You may be able to get those files back by having a utility go through and unprotect those files and/or have them recovered by a professional company. You may have screwed yourself here.

## Post 6 by b3n (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Sunday, 17-Feb-2008 16:26:39

It can be done for free, but first, just a little observation:
You've formatted your systemdue to getting a virus but your keeping your files? Your probably infected files? That are gonna be on a system from the moment the os finishes installing that doesn't have any anty virus on it? i would have thought this one over a little bit more.
But yeah, its called taking ownership, but it can only be done on xp pro so ... post with what os you put on there.

## Post 7 by purple penguin (Don't you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.) on Sunday, 17-Feb-2008 16:30:23

I would've backed up the important files such as documents.
That viruse may still be there.

## Post 8 by the subtle knife (Account disabled) on Monday, 18-Feb-2008 4:28:46

so what utilities are there to access my files? i went into propperties on the protected folder, but it won't let me change anything. rrr, , i should have backed my damn files up! lol

## Post 9 by b3n (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Monday, 18-Feb-2008 5:55:10

in your situation yeah, i wouldn't have left all the infected files on the same drive no, but try answering my question???

## Post 10 by tspivey (Generic Zoner) on Monday, 18-Feb-2008 21:15:31

If you are not running xp pro, Go grab a copy of chown, and run that recursively on the dir. Then run cacls recursively on the dir as well. You might need to grab cacls from an xp pro system, chown can be found here.
basically the syntax is:
chown -r "%username%" directory
cacls directory /t /g everyone:f
You might be able to replace everyone with %username%, but for a quick fix, that'll do.
If you are running xp pro, turn off simple file sharing from folder options, then you will have asecurity tab from which you can change the owner and permissions, but be sure to do it in that order and check the box that says apply to subcontainers and objects
If you still need help after this, contact me and I'll see what I can do.