I have an PC that I run XP on (stop laughing, it's for work applications ). The system crashed (obviously) and I had to reinstall windows. The problem I have is that I can no longer get to the files that were under My Documents previously. I am an admin on the machine, the only admin actually, and I just cannot get into the old folder even though it is still there. In the past, I was able to load a copy of Trinux, mount the drive, and copy the needed files. Now it is complaining that ntfs is not supported by the kernel. I tried using Knoppix STD with a little more success. I can actually get into the folder and even see thumbnails of files, but I cannot copy them to another directory or even open them up at all. Does anybody have any advice as to how to do this? I'm sure it is much easier to do with a bootable linux distro, but I just can't seem to get it to work.

Thanks

hello doza

I have done this with Knoppix 2.4.26. and sending the needed files to another box on the network.

Using a laptop that has a cdrom drive and windowsxp that needs some files salvaged.

Boot the box with the Knoppix CD and configure the network card with ifconfig.

Goto the Windows partition that shows as an ICON.

From that partition, find the file or files you need and copy them to the Knoppix desktop.

Then from a terminal in Knoppix ftp them to another computer in the network.

The desktop in Knoppix is /home/knoppix/Desktop

Hope this is some value to you.

Good Luck

Have you tried to log in as "administrator" under XP and getting at the files that way? I don't mean a user with admin priviledges. I mean administrator (get to it from the classic login - ctrl+alt+del perhaps twice at the login screen)The reason you can't get in is because the folder has protection against unauthorized access. That's likely why you're having the problems with Linux too. Guzzi may have the solution, but it can't hurt to try the easy way.

knoppix works for me. is STD the desktop installed version?

most other livecd's should work too like slax.

Thanks for the info. The only solution that I have had the time to try so far is logging in as the administrator. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get the password right. I know that I did not set up an admin password when I installed this time. Is there a default one that I can use?

Knoppix STD is a security version of Knoppix that is bootable from a CD. Nothing gets installed on the hard drive.

Another thing you may want to try is to boot into our XP and log in under your privlidged account.

Then go into My Computer

Click on the Tools menu, and then down to "Folder Options"

Click on the View tab, and scroll down to the very bottom.

Uncheck (if it's checked) Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)

Then go into your c:\documents and settings\username

Right click on the my documents folder and now check the security settings and make sure your privlidged user can see the folder.

I had the exact same problem when I had to do a re-install of XP and that was the solution I went through.

Hope it helps

Cheers

Tap

Thanks for the advice, Tap. I tried that, but I do not have that setting on my computer. This is Home Edition, maybe that is only available on Professional?

I did try to reset the admin password using the command line. It allowed me to do that, but when I try to log on it says that acount restrictions will not allow that user to log on. Anybody have any idea why that would be?

This really is kind of annoying. I'd be happy if I could just grab these files then wipe the machine out and start again.

This is an old thread, but in case anyone else hits this issue, here's my 2c

I may be way off, but have you tried booting safe mode, and using the advanced security / file permissions to take ownership of the inaccessable files / directories? I know that sometime the files are using the SID for the old account, and windows will claim you don't have permission to access it even if you are administrator.

Look into the "take ownership" possibility, I'm sure there's info about it on MS's web sites.

Good luck

peace+love
Chris

This isn't an old thread. It's an ancient thread.

Four and a half years ago, NTFS support was spotty and read-only at best. It's fine now.