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My Windows XP HDD..

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groundhog1

groundhog1

Electrical
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May 4, 2003
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(Appologies in advance for my stupidity in this area...)

My old laptop broke, so I scavanged the HDD for use as general storage and backup. But I can no longer get to some areas of the HDD because it thinks that I am not authorized.

Is there a way to unlock these directories or make it so that all users can access the drive?

Thanks,
groundhog
 
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Backup the data that you're authorised to access, then reformat the drive. You'll probably have to restore the locked data from your normal backups if you can't login as the authorised user or as administrator

Good Luck
johnwm
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OOOOhhh.
That's not a good answer!
I was hoping for some high level administrator thing...
Oh well.
Thanks for the help.

Hey one more question.
Can I load any applications onto this HDD and then take it to work on my other computer, and then run the apps there?
OR will the second computer's registry not recognise the apps?

groundhog1
 
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As a general rule, that will not work, although, there are some applications that are quite forgiving about registry entries.

If you have administrator privilege, you should be able to reset the security on different folders.

TTFN



 
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Do you have the XP installation CD? If so just stick it into the machine, boot up and you have administrator access to everything.
 
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So you mean just having the CD in there?

When I get a new computer, I make up a general user ID and I have an adminstrator ID. But there is already an admistrator in there. Who is that for and how do I use that ID? Is that administrator better than any of the rest?
 
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The built-in administrator account is just a standard member of the administrator group. It's the default login account so you can set the other accounts up. You should change the blank password to a safe one as soon as you install

Good Luck
johnwm
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To get the best from these forums read faq731-376 before posting

Steam Engine enthusiasts:
 
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