Locked Files?

[TheBattousai]

Hey all, got asked a question of which I am unsure how to solve, and I thought this would be the place to turn.

A friend of mine said he was having major issues with his computer so he did a system restore but left all his other files intact (aka meida and the whatnot). When he restarted, the system asked if he wanted to protect his files so other users could not access them. He did and then the system restarted again. When he tried to access his files, it said something along the lines of access denied. He is the administrator on his computer, but it won't let him access them at all. When he views the properties, it says they take up 0 bytes, but his HD space is very low so he knows they're still there. Just wondering how he might be able to access them. I have not witnessed the problem, its all from what he told me, so if something doesn't make sense, ask and I'll get more details from him. As always, thanks for the help.

[CaterpillarAssassin]

what os?

[FlyingPenguin]

Suggestions:

I assume this is Win2K or XP?

- Try logging on as the Administrator (not as a user who is an admin, but log on AS the user called Administrator. You can only do this from Safe Mode.

If that doesn't work.

- Right click the folder or files you can't access, select Properties, Security tab, Advanced button, Owner tab. See who the owner is. I suspect it's possible that the owner is a user that your friend is not logged on as, or a user that doesn't even exist anymore. He must log off and log back on with THAT user name and then he should be able to go back into the owner security settings again as that user and change the owner of the files and folders to his actual user name.

Hope this helps...

PS: NEVER use the "Protect my files so other users can't access them option" unless you absolutely need to keep another LOCAL user on that same computer from accessing your files. This setting has nothing to do with network security except indirectly.