[mpurchases]

followed the "take ownership" microsoft instructions. Did not work - still access denied. It does not make sense to me that microsoft could allow one computer to take ownership of hard drive that was password protected - it is too easy. That means i can remove anyones hard drive and put it through a enclosure and access their files - there is something missing here - I still cannot access.

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one more time...is it xp pro or xp home

also follow the instructions for taking ownership of the files...but do it on the E drive itself (like right click on the E drive icon in my computer and do properties etc...) instead of just a single folder

[dsenette]

one more time...is it xp pro or xp home

also follow the instructions for taking ownership of the files...but do it on the E drive itself (like right click on the E drive icon in my computer and do properties etc...) instead of just a single folder

[mpurchases]

got it - can read them - thanks alot.

NOW MY MAIN PROBLEM - my bankruptcy brief was on my desktop of the crashed computer. Is it gone?

[dsenette]

no...it should be under e:\documents and settings\<username>\desktop (where <username> is the name of the user you used to log on as)

[mpurchases]

I LOVE YOU - it worked - found my brief.

[dsenette]

It does not make sense to me that microsoft could allow one computer to take ownership of hard drive that was password protected - it is too easy. That means i can remove anyones hard drive and put it through a enclosure and access their files - there is something missing here - I still cannot access.

system security put in place via a passworded user account and file security are two different things...the security of a computer with a passworded user account is effective in keeping unwanted access to the computer to a minimum as long as the system is running... actual file security (i.e. file encryption) is a whole different story...if you had encrypted those files...you wouldn't be looking at them right now...they'd be gone (effectively....there are ways to get them back but that's another ball of wax)