File Access to previous XP installation

I had a similar situation with not being able to access any of my data files
(docs, pictures, anything) from my previous WinXP install, but I HAD NOT
encrypted them or in any way put any restrictions on them in WinXP. It made
no difference when I gave the partition access as you described. (Or I was
not able to change the partition access due to error messages; can't quite
remember.) Still couldn't open them. Plus, I thought the administrator was
supposed to already have the priviledge to open files. Turning off UAC made
most of them accessible, but not all, and I'm not sure if they were all
editable or just read only. And I still couldn't move them or even copy all
of them to another drive where I thought they might overcome the "old system"
restrictions. Just how do you migrate your old files into Vista without
running into all the ridiculous security restrictions?


"Wayne Abruzzo" wrote:

> Log with an account that has administrative privilege.
>
> Open My Computer and right click the partition that contains the files you
> want to access and select Properties.
>
> Click on the Security tab.
>
> Click the Edit... button.
>
> Click the Add... button.
>
> Enter the local username of the account you want to have access to the
> partition (use ; for multiple usernames).
>
> Click the Check Name button and confirm the usernames were recognized
> (underlined).
>
> Click OK.
>
> Find that username in the list and single left click to highlight it.
>
> Click the check box for Full Access under the Allow column.
>
> Click OK then click OK again.
>
> You now have full access to that partition under Windows Vista.
>
> God Bless,
> Wayne
>
>
>
> "garvinr" <garvinr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C24DBF76-87A5-4CBA-A241-D5715E8BC674@microsoft.com...

> >I have two partitions on my hard drive, one for the operationg system and
> >the
> > other for data files. I re-formatted and installed Vista on the operating
> > system partition. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had protected certain
> > folders on the data partion through my previous XP SP2 version so the
> > guest
> > accounts could not open these files. Now, under Vista I get a "Windows
> > cannot
> > access the file" error when I try to open the file. Is there a way to
> > recover
> > these files or are they encrypted beyond recovery? Unfortunately, I did
> > not
> > back-up my previous installation of XP as I figured I would do a clean
> > intall
> > if needed as the os was becoming unstable. However, the usernam and
> > password
> > are the same for both XP and Vista Installations.

>
>