I updated windows XP service pack 2, media player 10 and other misc updates and two hours later it all came crashing down. The system shuts down and tries to reboot continually. I tried to start in any of the safe or command modes and it does the same thing.

I formatted a second drive and slaved the first to it and booted up to save my data. The only area I cannot access is My Documents and Desktop where some of the picture folders where. It returns “access denied” . I can’t seem to change the share file setting and take control of those folders. All other partitions and folders I have access to, including windows.

I’m thinking of formatting a third drive and replacing the hole windows folder into the corrupted one, I cant do it from just 2 drives because the OS in operation wont let me copy the "in use" OS system into the second drive so I’m think I need two slaved drives to make it happen.

I just dont know if that will fix the bad root or boot problem.

I dont care about the drive, just the data, reformatting the bad drive is not an option

Any other sugestions?

I should have know.....I normally dont update the OS

If you got another drive, take the other two out, then do a clean fresh install of XP. Get it up running correctly, then slave your other two drives in to get your data. It is hard to guess not knowinf the full story, but sounds like you have a video or sound card problem with SP2. Older units tend to have some kinks with SP2 and the constant rebooting is what they seem to end up doing.

The problem you are having sounds like a simple problem of permissions. You will need to log on as the Administrator in order to gain access to those files.

If you are using XP Home, this will not make sense to you, so don't bother reading. I can help you reset the folder permissions in XP Home also, but it will be convoluted and I will need to go look up the commands for you.

In XP Professional, if you turn OFF "simple file sharing", you can change the folder ownership and permissions. For more information on how to do this, please see this Microsoft spport article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874/

Once you disable Simple File Sharing, You can right-click the folder you're trying to get into and choose "properties", then go into the Security tab, click the Advanced button, in the Permissions tab, check off "Inherit from parent the permissions", also check off "Replace permission entries", then click the "Owner" tab, click your username to highlight it and then put a checkmark in the "Replace Owner" tab and click the APPLY button. This should return without an error.

If you need more help with this, please get with me before you format. I'm on the road most of the day tomorrow, but I'd love to help you out, Shane. Pictures are important and a format is not the solution in this case.

Thanks Shifty I was reading that yesterday
I couldn’t get in with XP home (just like you said), my little bro had a XP pro OS he slaved to it and under safe mod was able to take ownership of the folder a few minutes ago. I'm backing up now as I type on another machine. I did read the replace owner resolution from MS but like you said it didn’t make any sense the tabs weren't there under XP home. Also for some reason it wouldn’t work either from a standard XP pro boot we had to safe boot Pro.

Man..... I’m happy because I haven’t back up since last October. Lots of family and my project pics on that.

I think my problem lied in a UMAX driver and the new service pack doesn’t like it. Here is some info on that subject.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873161/en-us

I couldn’t use that fix because the corrupt drive wouldn’t boot on its own in safe mode or it wasn’t a driver problem at all.

Thanks buddy…

No worries.

For future reference, XP Home just doesn't have a graphical interface to allow you to change permissions, but it DOES support file permissions as a whole (dumb, eh? :crazy: ). It is totally possible to change ownership of stuff using the "CACLS" command from a MSDOS prompt. Information on how to use this is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cacls.mspx?mfr=true

Is the CALCS command for the command prompt in XP Home or just XP PRO?

Its been several years since I messed with a lot of PC stuff its amazing how much I forgot and I didn’t know that much to begin with anyway.

I was going nuts yesterday when I couldn’t log on to sites using the ussername:password@ syntax in the URL. Since I haven’t had to mess with a fresh OS I had forgotten they disallowed that in one of the security updates many moons ago. I had to search for the correct commands to change the registry key. Took me a couple of hours and pulling my hairs to find it.

Is the CALCS command for the command prompt in XP Home or just XP PRO?


Should be available in both in the command prompt. Example:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>cacls
Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files

CACLS filename [/T] [/E] [/C] [/G user:perm] [/R user [...]]
[/P user:perm [...]] [/D user [...]]
filename Displays ACLs.
/T Changes ACLs of specified files in
the current directory and all subdirectories.
/E Edit ACL instead of replacing it.
/C Continue on access denied errors.
/G user:perm Grant specified user access rights.
Perm can be: R Read
W Write
C Change (write)
F Full control
/R user Revoke specified user's access rights (only valid with /E).
/P user:perm Replace specified user's access rights.
Perm can be: N None
R Read
W Write
C Change (write)
F Full control
/D user Deny specified user access.
Wildcards can be used to specify more that one file in a command.
You can specify more than one user in a command.

Abbreviations:
CI - Container Inherit.
The ACE will be inherited by directories.
OI - Object Inherit.
The ACE will be inherited by files.
IO - Inherit Only.
The ACE does not apply to the current file/directory.

C:\>