Recovering NTFS user Files?

Factual Questions
1

I have a machine with XP home and NTFS file system. Windows XP won’t boot. We’re going to reformat, but need to get some files off of the hard drive. No problem, we just slaved the drive to another windows install. We’re able to browse most of the files, however . . .

The files we need to recover are in a user directory and are apparently only accessible to the user who created them. Logging in as Administrator doesn’t work. We also tried creating a user on this other install of XP with the same name and password but this user also doesn’t have access to the files.

I wonder if there is something which I don’t understand about NTFS file security. Does it somehow know that it is a different administrator user than the one which was on the original install of Windows? Any suggestions on how to get at these files?

thanks.

2

I actually was able to answer my own question in the interim. We were able to reinstall Windows on top of the corrupt XP version, login as Administrator and take ownership of the files.

Thanks me.

I also found this thread on the subject which helped. Mods can close this if they wish.

3

Glad you found a solution. As far as slaving an XP drive with user folders under a differerent OS, all you would have to do is add a new owner to the user folder, and take ownership. Never had a problem with this.