Another XP question

[jeffrow]

Ok, in response to my earlier post, I couldn't get in, so I installed XP on top of the other XP installation and can now get in. All my data is still there, but I cannot access any of the programs or old user accounts. I tried creating a new user account with one of the old user accounts, but it names it something different. Nothing like Office or Peachtree or anything will run. Is there a way to make the old software and user accounts that are on this computer work in the new installation?

Thanks in advance..

Jeff

[Play_The_0dds]

when you installed it over it's self....all of the old one is unusable, about all you can do is save the files you had from it. my best advise would be save all you files while you can boot, then format and reinstall the whole thing so you do have all that trash on your drive. programs and accounts that were registered to the previous copy of xp will not run because you deleted the registry and system 32 that they installed to. you can reinstall them and they will work on the copy of xp you are running now,....but you will still have all that crap from the old installation on the drive.

[Miz]

Since you must be able to access the data in the old user accounts in order to back it up in case you do decide to format, the MS KB article, How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP has the instructions.