OT win xp help needed

[John.nl]

O wise ones,

I managed to break my windows xp. At startup I get a blue screen that says something about mismatching checksum on monurl.dll. I cannot even start in safe mode or vga. Attempts to start console mode via CD are futile as I forgot the administrator password.

So I've installed a copy of Win XP on another disk. The thing is that I cannot access the files of the old user. Other files are viewable but not those of the old primary user. I can see the root files tho like "my pics, my documents". I just cannot browse the sub folders. Even with administrator rights it keeps saying access denied.

Any hints as how to get to my old "My documents"?

Thanks in advance

[MortuusLupus]

If they were encrypted, I'm pretty sure you're stuck up a particular creek without a paddle. WinXP is based on Win2k, and so is designed to keep out people who don't belong (or who it thinks shouldn't be on). Not like Win98 and pressing cancel at the password screen to log in.

[d3ik]

Well, i'm sure there's a windows trick to it, but I like going the long way around.

I would get a Win98/DOS boot disk with NTFSDOS on it (gives you the ability to mount NTFS partitions). Boot off the disk, run NTFSDOS, pop open your hard drive, copy all the files out of your C:\Documents and Settings(comes up Docume~1 or something)\%username%\My Docume~1\ to some other folder that you have that you DO have access to.

That's just what I would do first because I know it would work. I'm sure there is something with fewer steps... just a thought.

[Phiberdelic]

http://v014u43qed.maximumasp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=1590

Good article on De-Crypting Encrypted files in WinXP

If its just a permissions thing... highlight all, goto properties, goto security, goto advanced, use Take Ownership, go back to permissions, set permissions to [user/local admin:localdomain], set to replace all files, subs, etc...

[d3ik]

Whoa... let's not get encryption confused with access rights. Encryption is when a specific algorithm is run on information to essentially 'lock it up', without a specific key or a lot of brute force hacking that file/info will stay encrypted.

Access rights simply look at who's trying to access a particular file and compare it to a list it has saying who can/can't access that file. No encryption involved. That list is based off of the OS that is running, that's why I recommended going through DOS because you circumvent the operating system.

[Edit] - Okay, I just read the bottom of you post Phi... you're right too :p

[Archeus]

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104484

Not sure if that will help though.

[John.nl]

Thanks for the help folks, i really appreciate it!

Some complications: the old installation is on a scsi drive so it wont mount with a dos/ntfsdos disk atm. Gotta dig into that and make a special one with the appropiate drivers.

Take ownership: it doesnt display that option if i select the folder, right click and go to advanced (it only shows archive/index and compress or encrypt). Yet I am in the administrator group etc.

Knoppix: going to download that first thing in the morning. Or maybe any linux distro might be able to mount the ntfs formatted drive. Good one!

Decrypt: the fix requires to logon as the user and thats not possible (since the old win xp install wont boot).

Will keep you all posted, thanks again all!

[Mattimeo]

you have advanced properties turned on correct? to get rid of the "user proofing" they built into XP, open up folder options and view, then all the way at the bottom click off "Use simple filesharing" gets you access to all the good tools. that should help you yank control, but if it is encrypted, you're pretty borked.

[John.nl]

Yey! Victory!

@mattimeo, brilliant tip thanks!

Still it turned out the drive was marked 'read only' and I was unable to 'take' the ownership. Nothing would convince windows to make the drive un-readonly. It switched back to read only no matter what I did.

And then...

I don't know why, but the backup utility was able to read the inaccessible files. After restoring to another folder without restoring the security settings I got my files back!

Cheers