Maybe Off Topic! Sorry if it is

Hey MS dudes. I am a cisco dork and never been over here, but I thought I might throw my problem at you and give you guys some practice/experience!!!

OK, here goes: My home PC crashed last year, not sure why, no software changes, no hardware changes. It would not boot with Windows XP Pro saying it could not find several files. I have another laptop, so I never really bothered to try and fix it.

I decided to start playing with it again. Did some searching on Google. Booted from CD into recovery console and tried to fix the boot loader. Then upon trying to boot normally, I was told that ntfs.sys could not be found. Again, back to Google and found the procedure---copy the file from the CD to the appropriate folder on the hard disk through the recovery console. Did that, and again, and again, and again. I was told each time that the file was copied successfully but upon trying to boot, again I was told that the file could not be found.

I have two hard drives. The second one,

, is actually a newer and larger disk. Anyway, decided to try installing a new instance of Windows XP Pro on it, hoping I might be able to still access everything on both disks.

I am able to access all data on the D drive which is where the new instance is installed. Drive C: does show up in explorer and i can list all the major folder within My Docs, Program Files, etc. but I cannot expand any further than that and cannot access any data on the C: drive.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Or at least save some data? Would be really grateful even if it was just some pointers to more information.

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nel

if there was probs with your windows boot files you could easily do a repair option from your setup XP cd. just pop it in and run repair - it will copy the necessary files across from you which should elimanate any boot file errors.

but if you cant open parts of your c drive it maybe bcos your disk has damaged sectors or maybe file system damage. i usually use tools on cd's like hirens which has alot of hard disk tools which will scan your hdd for any errors and ix them.

blackmage439

I agree with nel. It sounds like the file system on that hard disk is corrupted. Perhaps by just a loss of data, bad sectors on the drive, or possibly a virus. Since C: is no longer your boot partition, there shouldn't be any programs running from that disk. It would be a good opportunity to run a virus scan and a Windows XP Error-check on the C: drive. After that, try copying ntfs.sys from the CD into the correct folder on the bad drive, instead of going through the Recovery Console.

Hopefully this will help somehow...

Deadmaster200

hey guys.

well, after booting up again into the new instance of windows, windows ran a scandsk on the C drive and fixed the file system. so i can access the data on the C drive from the new installation. I cannot access My Documents; gives me an error about not having permission.

After bios finishes it's thing, i do get a choice between the 2 windows installations. however, choosing the old one still results in the same ntfs.sys not found error.

I just spent 4 hours last night getting the new install all updated with the security patches and service pack 2. maybe tonight i will try copying ntfs.sys again. but, i guess if i can access my docs and copy what i need, i can just reformat the C drive and use it as a data disk the way i was using the D drive before.

sprkymrk

Log in to your new install, and then take ownership of your old My Docs. Then assign yourself full control. The only reason this wouldn't work is either due to drive corruption or if you used EFS (encryption) on your old My Docs.

nel

what sprkymrk said should work but if not i would use a knoppix live cd and boot to it. once your in there open your old hard disk, locate your my docs and copy them straight across to your new hard disk. if you download knoppix make sure its the live version (1cd) because the others are full installs.

Deadmaster200

hi guys

when i go to properties for the folder or any file within, the only tabs i have are General, Sharing, and Customize.

Any idea what to do?

royal

Turn off simple file sharing. Tools > Folder Options > Scroll to bottom and uncheck it. This automatically gets disabled when you join a domain.

Deadmaster200

ok, following royal`s advice, i am able to do what others described previously.

however, changing the permissions doesnt seem to affect the file within them. will i have to do this procedure for every file?

nel

he means change the ownership of the file. go to security > advanced > owner then change to the appropriate one.

sprkymrk

Deadmaster200 wrote:

ok, following royal`s advice, i am able to do what others described previously.

however, changing the permissions doesnt seem to affect the file within them. will i have to do this procedure for every file?

Take ownership of the top level directory, check the box that says "Replace ownership on all child directories".

Then grant yourself full control at the top level, and on the advanced tab select "Replace permissions entries on all child objects with those shown here".

Deadmaster200

Thanks so much guys. you all were able to tell me exactly what to do. Cant believe there are people who actually know what they are talking about when it comes to Windows! You guys rock.

sprkymrk

Later this year I'll probably spend a little more time in the Cisco forums. I'll need to brush up to recertify my CCNA and maybe more. So I'll see you there, but meanwhile feel free to drop by the MS forums whenever you need a hand.