Windows XP & NTFS access problems...

ariamar · #1 04-10-2004, 09:02 AM

Hi folks...I've run into some difficulties with my WinXP operating system...and to make a very long story short, I tried to reinstall WinXP on top of the existing install but unfortunately my pc (P4 w/512MB RAM) kept rebooting in the middle of the install process, generating a BSOD but not allowing enough time for me to read the error message the BSOD related to. So I decided to perform a parallel installation (same partition but in a different directory) and that worked. Problem though is that winXP recognized my original user accounts and therefore would not let me create one with the same name (SID problem I guess)...so I created another account (admin priviledges). Now logging in with this account I cannot access the My Documents folder of my original account...all my important personal files are in that folder. I'm considering trying to convert the file system from NTFS to FAT32 (to get rid of the access permissions) but I read the Partition Magic could potentially destroy my files if the conversion doesn't work...so I'm facing a potential disaster here and would like to work around it if at all possible. Would any of you have any tips to send my way to address this problem...if I lose these files it'll be disastrous for me...Thanks in advance! Martin.

Play_The_0dds · #2 04-10-2004, 02:01 PM

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=810881
the fix on that link will open the files.

ariamar · #3 04-10-2004, 09:53 PM

I stripped everything from the hard drive that I didn't need (both installation of WinXP and all folders from the Documents and Settings except the one I needed), resized the partition to a minimum (4GB), rebooted with the Partition Magic 8 rescue diskettes and converted the NTFS partittion to FAT32...and voilà! Not one single file lost...ouff!!!