Cannot access My Documents folders from a drive taken from another Windows 7 system.

[LoneTXRanger]

I was running a Windows 7 system when the motherboard suddenly died. Skipping the dramatics, I have a new Windows 7 system and have connected the old system hard drive via a SATA -> USB dock. I can access most everything on the old drive except those files controlled under the My Documents, My Photos, etc. structure.

I have taken ownership of the entire drive and given myself full permissions to everything on the drive but still cannot view or manipulate the files. Running ATTRIB from a command prompt yielded "Access Denied" messages.

Unlocker did not work either.

Any ideas of what to try next?

Thanks!!

 

[wildfire707]

User folders don't inherit permissions by default, so all you should have to do is select the user folder that you are having problems with, open properties on it, select the security tab, click on Advanced (not Edit), and click on the "Change Permissions" button under the Permissions tab, add your user to the list (if it is not there), and edit your user with "Full control" permissions to that folder and apply those changes.

All of the sub-folders of a user's folder should inherit those permissions.

Hopefully this works for you.

 

[LoneTXRanger]

WF707: Thanks - I've done all that - still nothing noted in the directories. Any other thoughts?

 

[wildfire707]

WF707: Thanks - I've done all that - still nothing noted in the directories. Any other thoughts?

You can try using bootable linux to read everything and copy to USB memory. Ubuntu will usually do this.

 

[LoneTXRanger]

Ubuntu was key! Being able to view the disk without the clutter of "dirty windows", I determined that the directories were, in fact, quite empty. That's when I remembered that I had redirected all of the storage out of the My Documents structure - I guess I'm pretty clever but forgetful...

Anyway - it's a great tip and a tool I'll keep around! Who knows, I may even build a Ubuntu system just for kicks!