accessing old protected user documents from new xp pro install?

[idiotequed]

Hi all,

Glad I came upon your boards. I have a problem on my hands here, hopefully you can help me out.

My computer crashed a couple of days ago. When I tried booting up, I got an error message telling me that a file was corrupt or missing from the \windows\system32\config\system\ directory.

I reintstalled XP Pro on a separate hard drive I had laying around and when I tried to access my old documents from the crashed hard drive I got an error message telling me I didn't have permission to access the files. I protected the files a while ago to keep my roommates from screwing anything up, but now I can't get my files back...I'm wondering if there is any way to gain access from my new Windows install.

Any thoughts? Thanks for any help!

[beeboy]

I would try really hard to do a repair install on your xp pro that crashed. Otherwise I think you are in trouble getting your data back. I have seen several posts here from people with the same problem and I do not think a solution was found. There is some software available that may help you. Look here.
http://www.lostpassword.com/efs.htm
Never use EFS unless you have backups. Put your info on disk and lock it up.

[idiotequed]

thanks beeboy. i suppose my question then turns into how to repair this problem. i've booted from the XP Pro disc and gone to repair mode, but all i get is a command prompt...not much of a repair to me. any ideas on how to repair this problem?

[beeboy]

What you did was go to the recovery console. You want to do a repair install. Do not choose recovery console - choose install. Here is step by step info.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
This will basically install xp over itself keeping all your programs and data intact.

[idiotequed]

thanks beeboy! i'll give that a go and see what happens. thanks for the info!