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Hello all. Back in February of this year my old HP decided to just become stuck on the desktop. The mouse would not move so I did a hard shut down and thus I ended up with a non-working PC. Today I took it to a store to have them see if it was the video card (due to the fact the screen was working but not the PC) and it was not. So I purchased an external hard drive case to put the hard drive from the HP in because I have a laptop that I am able to use. The problem is I am not able to gain access to F:\Documents and Settings\HP_Owner. The person who helped me did a trick to bypass this earlier so I could obtain some files from "My Documents" but I had files that were also located on the desktop. These files I am sure remain on the hard drive but I am unsure how to obtain those. If anyone could be of some assistance, it would be greatly appreciated as some of the files are needed for college. Thank you in advance.

Hi iamscape, and welcome to PCHF!

There is a fairly simple way of doing this.

If you can goto My Computer and select Tools -> Folder Options -> View.

Scroll down to the bottom of the box and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended). Apply and OK to close the window.

Now, the issue here is that you're going to have files all over the hard drive that you want to keep, and probably the easiest way is to take "ownership" of the whole drive, not just files here and there. To do this, right click on the whole drive, and select Properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner -> Here should be a list of the users that are on your computer...Administrator and another one (if you dont log in as administrator).

Select the user you're currently logged in as, and select the box down the bottom Replace owner on subcontainers and objects. Apply and OK all the windows.

This should give you access to all the folders you want. If it doesn't, there is another step to take.

Thank you for replying and the warm welcome GaRHaR. I seem to have encountered another problem. I began to follow the steps you have provided and when I went to Tools -> Folder Options -> View in My Computer, the option you stated is not there. I may be blind but I honestly do not see it as an option.

What version of Windows are you running?

Just letting you all know, this problem has been resolved.

iamscape is running XP Home, and to get to the security tab, it was required to boot into Windows safe mode and continue following the steps.

This problem has been resolved.

Have a great day