Is there an easy way to reset all XP file attributes.

[andrew3]

My XP pro got trashed after installing Norton Ghost 12. The irony of a backup product wrecking my machine does not escape me. After several hours of useless online chat and phone conversations with the "support" staff at Symantec, I turned to the web and complete strangers for help.

The machine would not boot at all, it came to the screen that said "windows could not start properly, start in safe mode, start at last valid restore point etc. etc. ..." regardless of which option you picked, it would always return to the same screen.

Anyway, I determined that there was a good chance that I could restore the machine to a pre-Symantec infection state if I could access a super secret hidden XP folder named "System Volume Information". Since at the time I did not know the exact name of the folder or where on the disk it was located, I used the XP repair console from the XP install disk to invoke the ATTRIB command and remove all of the hidden attributes from all of the files. Hey, it was already broke and this wasn't going to break it any more.

Bottom line is, I did get the files I needed out of the System Volume Information folder and was able to restore my PC to before Symantec condition, but now all of my XP files are visible to all. I'm not so much worried that I'll screw one of these files up, but wife and kids also use this pc and who knows what they may do.

Is there any way to restore the original hidden attributes to the XP syatem files other than going thru them one by one? Using the folders options in Control panel has no effect, the files are still visible. Also. I did a repair install of XP, which also had no effect.

Thanks in advance.

[Monty007]

Well I always want my system running at its best. If it was me I would be saving all of my important work anf formatting the hard drive.

[Disk_Contented]

Why didn't you just repair it in the first place?
the super secret Sys volume information folder is easily shown using folder options/view/hide protected system files. You untick it.

You can recover files from a dead volume, but you don't know about folder options? :O

Anyway, make sure this is now ticked. Or try this:
http://www.febooti.com/products/file...ttributes.html

We live and learn!

[andrew3]

Originally Posted by Disk_Contented

Why didn't you just repair it in the first place?
the super secret Sys volume information folder is easily shown using folder options/view/hide protected system files. You untick it.

You can recover files from a dead volume, but you don't know about folder options? :O

Anyway, make sure this is now ticked. Or try this:
http://www.febooti.com/products/file...ttributes.html

We live and learn!

Hi Disk, I should have elaborated further. I did run the XP repair install initially, after I tried FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. None of this had any effect, even after the repair install.

My next step was to copy files out of the windows repair directory into the sys32 config directory, this allowed me to boot into windows with a default user/administrator account (of course none of my previous settings or registry values were available). At this point, since I appearantly had admin status I tried to set the folder options using the method you describe. It looked like it was changing the attributes, no error message, but it did not actually change them, the circle was still ticked to hide the system files. I really don't have a clue why it was behaving that way.

Being an old DOS/Unix geezer (plus cheapskate), I could not bring myself to call the Geek Squad, so I removed the hidden attributes from ALL the files using the command line ATTRIB command, thus reveling the stupid file and proceeded to play mix and match with the restore registry values until I got a viable system. I did try to remove the hidden attribute from just "System Volume Information" but I could not make ATTRIB understand that it was single file name rather than three separate ones, so I just said screw it, and wildcarded it.

I do have a several image files of the entire system on an external drive, plus week old copies of all data files, so I could theoretically restore the entire drive, but I have never restored an entire drive using Seagates Arconis based software, so I am going to wait on that until this weekend after I pickup a spare hard drive, just in case.

Sorry for the long winded response. Thanks for trying to help.

And to make the response just a bit longer, the hide system files circle is currently ticked, but the XP files are still visible, I guess a changes made with ATTRIB over rides folder option changes.