transfering 'my documents' from one harddrive to another?

I've recently had to re-install windows XP home because I changed my
motherboard, CPU and RAM and XP wouldn't boot up with the new hardware.

So I popped in a new harddrive, did a clean XP install, made the old
harddrive a slave and just copied all my old data to the new harddrive.

Now this worked very well until I tried to copy the contents of my old "My
Documents" folder. When I try and open up the myoldeusername folder under
"Documents and Settings" I get an "access denied". This means I cant even
get to my old e-mails under Local Settings or my Address books.

I assume I must've made my documents hidden under my original xp
installation? I cant boot into my original xp installation as it
blue-screens and complains about some hardware error. I did try a repair
install on the original installation but no luck.

Is there any way to get to my original documents?

help!
Anine

"Anine Swart" wrote in message ...
I've recently had to re-install windows XP home because I changed my
motherboard, CPU and RAM and XP wouldn't boot up with the new hardware.

So I popped in a new harddrive, did a clean XP install, made the old
harddrive a slave and just copied all my old data to the new harddrive.

Now this worked very well until I tried to copy the contents of my old "My
Documents" folder. When I try and open up the myoldeusername folder under
"Documents and Settings" I get an "access denied". This means I cant even
get to my old e-mails under Local Settings or my Address books.

I assume I must've made my documents hidden under my original xp
installation? I cant boot into my original xp installation as it
blue-screens and complains about some hardware error. I did try a repair
install on the original installation but no luck.

Is there any way to get to my original documents?

Assuming you were running as a non-administrator user,
when you reinstalled you created a new security identifier
(SID) for your account Windows pays no attention to
the name when resolving security. Only the SID.

You need to take ownership of the files and folders in
question.

Right click on the folder, "Properties", "Security" tab,
click "Advanced", "Owner" tab, and select your
account name in the "Change owner to" list. Make
sure you select "Replace Owner on subcontainers
and objects".

You may need to alter the permissions to add yourself
to the list after taking ownership.

All of this assumes you are using the NTFS file system.
If it's FAT32, it ain't a security problem.

"Ron Ruble" wrote in message ...

"Anine Swart" wrote in an email message

Ron,
There doesn't seem to be a 'security' tab under the properties of the
folder (this is XP home not pro) Yes, both harddrives were formatted
using NTFS but both the old account and new account were
'Computer Administrator' accounts (though not called Administrator).
any ideas?
thanx!
Anine

XP Home doesn't normally provide access to the security
tab. See this link for a solution:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

From the article:

"NOTE: You must be logged on to the computer using an account
that has administrative privileges. If you are running Windows XP
Home Edition, in order to have access to the Security tab, you
must first start in Safe Mode and log on with an account that
has Administrative rights."

So Safe Mode it is.

Please direct additional questions to the newsgroup,
rather than email, so others may benefit from the
discussion. I have sent this reply to the newsgroup
as well as direct by email.

You might also want to check this site:

http://www.labmice.net

LabMice is primarily directed to professional tech
people. Lots of good references there.