Permissions on a slaved WIN7 drive
I had a laptop hard drive blow up on me and corrupt the Windows boot process. The blow up appears to be circut board heating up after about 20 minutes. When I boot now it suggests to perform the repair. The repair fails (error logs says pending patch is the problem). If I try to boot windows, it just hangs. I need some files from the Users\{myID} directories of that drive. I got new drive, installed Win7 Ultimate (same OS as on first drive). I got a Thermaltake drive docking station, and loaded the blown-up original drive. On the old drive, I can see both partitions (Recovery and Regular). Using Win Explorer I can see the directories at the root of the regular partition. When I try to drill down the subdirectories I get errors for permissions and don't see any files or subdirectories listed. I don't want to damage the files on this drive, so I thought it's best to ask for help. What is the proper way to get to my data in this situation? I've seen several articles about taking ownership, and granting permissions, but there was lots of noise about it worked for some and not for others, and most were accessing slaved XP drives, not Windows 7 drives. The bad drive's file system is NTFS. Any help ? Thank you, MB
August 16th, 2010 5:47am

The file system in windows 7 is different than older versions of windows, make sure you are looking the right place. From a posting here...... The following folders that in win7 user profile are shortcuts. In computing, a symbolic link (also symlink or soft link) is a special type of file that contains a reference to another file or directory in the form of an absolute or relative path and that affects pathname resolution. "Documents and Settings" and "Application Data", "Cookies", "Local Settings", "My Documents", "NetHood", "PrintHood", "Recent", "SendTo", "Start Menu", "Templates These shortcuts in Windows 7 are junction points, which are important parts of application compatibility. As Windows 7 is a new Windows Platform, a lot of applications was not designed for it so that they are not fully compatible with Windows 7. To allow these applications access the data on Windows 7 properly, the shortcuts are designed to redirect the applications to obtain the necessary data in the correct directories. Thus, these shortcuts do not contain any files but a new directory of a certain folder. To avoid deleting or modifying the shortcuts by mistake, Windows 7 sets the Read permissions of these folder to Deny. Actually, the shortcuts are hidden by default. To access these junction points, redirect to the following folders: Note: As some folders are hidden, please refer to the following steps to show all the hidden files. Show hidden folders ============== 1. Open "Computer", and click "Organize" -> "Folder and Search Options". 2. Click the "View" tab. Under "Hidden files and folders", click "Show hidden files and folders." 3. To display other hidden files, clear the "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" check box. Documents and Settings C:\Users Application Data C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming Cookies C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies Local Settings C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Local My Documents C:\Users\User_name\Documents NetHood C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts PrintHood C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts Recent C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent SendTo C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo Start Menu C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu Templates C:\Users\User_name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates
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August 16th, 2010 6:26pm

You have to take ownership then once you have ownership give yourself permision. This is an arduous process with Windows Explorer. It is quicker from a command prompt with the takeown and icacls commands. At an elevated command prompt (right click on cmd.exe and pick Run as administrator) type: takeown /? icacls /? to see how the commands work. They have many switches and are very frustrating to learn. Once you figure them out it's fairly quick and easy to get access to any folder. Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
August 17th, 2010 3:01am

Thanks Bubba and Kerry. I'll give it a go when I get back home. I'll let you know how it goes, these are the two best answers I've seen. MB
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August 17th, 2010 6:11am

Hi, Fisrt, Kerry Brown is right, you should take the ownership of the files on your old drive. Here is the reference of the two commands: Icacls Takeown Note: you should run the commands as administrator. And if you cannot see any files and subdirectories listed, you should take Bubbapcquv’s advice to show all hidden files. Hope it helps. Regards , Alex
August 18th, 2010 9:20am

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