Reinstalling Windows 7 And Ownership Of User Data On Different Drive
Oct 24, 2012
I keep all my data on a separate drive. The last time I re-installed windows 7 I had to take ownership of all my data even though the user name on the old install and then new install was the same. After reading the forums I understood that the SID for my user name was different between the old and new installations.
So my questions are
1) Is there anyway to assign the old user SID to the user created in the newly reinstalled OS so that I don't have to take ownership for a huge number of files/folders recursively?
2) If there is no way to assign the SID how do people store their data to allow for easy reinstall of the OS/Migration to a different computer?
I tried to take ownership of ProgramData - a folder in my C drive - to install VMWare because it gave me a security error. Now I can't use Windows Search from the Start Menu, and I think I got an error somewhere related to ProgramData while I tried to fix itndexing is not running, according to the Indexing Options window. So I think I need to "un-take" ownership of the ProgramData folder. Is there a way to "untake" ownership of a folder?
My computer crashed and I am unable to get windows to start it goes all the way to the login screen but never loads so that i can type my password it just keeps trying to load. anyways Ive tried all the other routes to repair and no luck now im at the point where I would just prefer to do a new install, but I cant access my important work related files to back them up onto an external HD. I have my Windows 7 disk that I made when I got my computer new.I put that in and boot from the disk I brings me to the partition menu with no upgrade option (I think that is the option I need in order to create the Windows old folder?) So my question is If I format the System Partition and reinstall windows on that partition will my data on the data partition be effected? or will the data partition still be available once the fresh system is installed?
I bought a dell laptop 2years back. It was shipped with Windows Vista in C drive and a Recovery drive. I split C drive into C, D and E drives according to my requirements. Now I want to format my laptop. If I install windows again from dell recovery drive, will it combine erase data from all drives and combine them or it will erase and re-install windows on my C drive keeping rest of them as it is.
I just took ownership of my entire C: by using cmd "takeown /F C: /R /D Y" and now I own it, but Windows still refuses to let me delete any folder saying I need permission, from the user account that I am currently logged into. What.
I formatted my system today and did a clean install of Windows 8 and now my USB storage drive says cannot access. I remember vaguely adding permissions or taking ownership to the files when I was on Win 7 but dont remember what it is I did exactly. I was trying to hide my files from other users who logged into my computer and I strongly believe that I took ownership of those files. Basically if I format my PC again and when I browse my storage drive it shouldn't bug me for ownership or permissions. or if I put the drive in another PC it shouldn't ask for me for ownership/permissions. How do undo this?
I'm helping out my wife's friend who has a Dell Dimension 4700 with Windows Xp. So her motherboard fried and wanted me to transfer her files over to a new backup hard drive. So I took the hard drive out and hooked it up to my computer running Windows 7. I can see the files and everything just fine but when I click on a folder I get the "You don't currently have permission to access this folder" Click continue to permanently get access to this folder. So I click continue and it wants me to go to a security tab and change the owership from Unable to display current owner to Admin. The problem I'm running into is that it wants me to do that for every folder and file. Is their a way that I can do a blanket ownership over the whole drive, or is their a way to transfer the files without having to take ownership of the drive so my friend can just copy and paste the files with no problems.
I have had my clean install of windows for about a fortnight now. I just recently found that the account I actually want to use though is the hidden "ultimate administrator"kind of user. Is there a quick easy way to migrate my settings and user data from the normal administrator user "tom" to the super administrator user?
I had to change the owner and permissions of the C:Windows folder in order to install a particular software. When I changed these settings, I had the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box checked.I figure its safe to say I made a mistake. Does anyone know how to return all ownership and permissions to default values without doing a full install of the OS? I tried creating a recovery disc and running a repair, but it didn't fix the issue.I also have no image to restore to.
I just reinstalled and it seems my D drive that has all my data, and i use for my docs. Has lost ownership i guess. First noticed because FF wouldnt download to it, to my downloads folder. Next tried to extract something and it wouldnt work.
I can delete but have to hit continue, on the prompt that says it needs administrator access.
I figure the permissions got messed up somehow, this has never happen before though...
I have noticed that my SSD has been filling up quite fast lately. So I went to remove some programs thinking that was the issue, with no luck. *snap* So I did a disk cleaner run, removed 32gbs of info of it. Went to install ''Assassins Creed 3'' (Got the game off ''Gamerfanshop'') installed it my HDD. All was good, checked my SSD now its back down to 12gbs (82gbs total). Went to see what the issue was, it says that there is 41GBS of info on my Windows user. I open it to see where all the information was and I only find 12gbs in it...
Ever since I've had my computer there has been an extra drive on it. it was called microsoft (Protected). It has absolutely nothing on it, and it has no use. I have been trying to delete it to no avail, so I renamed it to annoying drive.
Whenever I try to access it it gives me an access denied message. It has no owner, or even permissions, and when I try to change it to me, or the admin, it gives me the same message. I went to the list of things on the computer, and I can't even find it. I then attempted using lock hunter to find out what was blocking me from changing the file. Also to no avail. It says that there is nothing protecting it.
I've googled and tried many methods to fix this over the last two hours but nothing so far as worked.I have an old hard drive with data on it from my old Windows XP Professional computer attached to a usb port on a converter. Win 7 claims it cannot display the owner, if I try to take permission it says permission denied. If I take down the UAC the hard drive no longer appears in My Computer.I have tried to go in as the administrator account specifically it keeps giving me access denied. I tried using the administrator account in normal mode and using the command line 'take owner' command and it says access denied.I tried going into administrator safe mode, but again the external hard drive won't show up.Shortly I am planning on reformatting the current C drive and putting on Windows Xp Pro 32 bit, Win 7 and Ubuntu. Should I just wait till do that and hope it will miraculously identify it if I take control of it with Xp Pro? I'm really hoping this isn't going to indicate problems sharing files between the two operating systems on the same hard drive.
I have a network hard drive mapped as Z: which I have become unable to do ANYTHING with. I can't delete anything, change anything, or add anything to the drive. I just get that blasted "Destination folder access denied. You need permission to perform this action."
The internet has provided me with a plethora of solutions to this issue, and none of them have worked. I'm logged on as administrator. User Account Control is totally off. Windows 7 will allow me to neither change permissions nor ownership of Z: or any folder or file within Z:.
I try giving Full Control to Everyone and it says "An error occurred while applying security information to (file name). Access is denied." I go into Advanced and click the Owner tab. It states the current owner of everything on Z: is "nobody," and if I try to change the owner, it says "Unable to set new owner on Z:. Access is denied."
I've tried going into command prompt and changing ownership using "takeown /f Z:" and I just get "Z: Access is denied."
I have taken ownership of all the files and folders on an old hard drive, but am still unable to access many of these files. When checking in the Security tab, I see myself as the owner with full admin permissions, but still cannot open the files
How do I set up a Windows 7 System with a SSD boot drive but with all User, Data & Programs (including Games) "Automatically" installing to and run from, an internal SATA Hard Drive, that preferably is labeled "C" drive or get as close to that as possible?!
To understand my problem, you need to know a little about the history of my PC. i bought my PC last September and about a month later, everything failed for no particular reason, and my hard drives were wiped clean. Originally, my windows, (windows 7 64 bit), was installed on a hard drive with over 1 TB worth of space.when the problem was fixed, my windows was installed onto my SSD, which only has 20GB worth of space. This means that space was incredibly limited, meaning that i could barely do anything that i wanted to.After trying to reinstall windows onto my 1TB hard drive, it failed at the last possible minute, saying something like, windows cannot configure itself to run on your system. Which bring me here.
I know there are a myriad of slave drive access issue posts on here. My thing is that I've managed to take ownership of my slave drive; formerly in a tower - now trying to access it thru my windows 7 laptop. Ive taken ownership of " my documents," but it doesn't seem like it took; I still have to take ownership of every folder in it individually when I go into it. Furthermore, when I going into my music or video folders - I get a "file not found" error when I try to open the files.
I have an HP desktop computer that I just bought an SSD for. I made the "recovery media" disks, I'm assuming that's the OS backed up? I want to make the SSD my boot drive. I put in the disks and unplugged the HDD and plugged in the SSD and I'm at a screen called "Recovery Manager". Do I do the "factory reset" to install the OS on this SSD?
I have a toshiba laptop running windows 7 32bit and made some changes to folder ownership that has wrecked havoc on my machine. I am the only user for this machine and am listed at the administrator. The changes I made were under the "users" folder, and the folder that listed my name. I don't even recall why I was tinkering with it but made a change under file folder properties/security/ownership. Since that change, it has done many things, including removing files and folders from my desktop and computer that do not show up anymore at all. It has blocked me from the c: drive. aApop up upon start up stats microsoft visual runtime library error c:program files. and on and on.
I have done a system restore to prior when I made the changes to no avail. it does the restore, but does not change the folder ownership or issues I am having. I have tried to reset the folder under options to a previous setting but that has not worked and now has me blocked from even going into my c: all together.. saying access denied. I have had no luck under control panel fixing this and have done more harm than good. Is there an easy way to get back control of my computer and regain the files that are not showing up. I have been looking for a way, similar to system restore, to reverse the changes to file ownership and give me control of my computer again. I would think this would be easy since im the system admin but no luck so far.
So I've been using my 64GB ssd as my windows 7 boot drive and i have a 1TB hdd as my data drive. Recently the my computer has begun to freeze up with errors like "explorer.exe" has stopped responding or "windows" has stopped responding and half of the time when i try to boot it says it cant find windows. This has lead me to believe that my ssd is dying despite being only a year old. I need to RMA my ssd but to do that i would be losing my boot drive for weeks. So I thought id try to create a system image so that i can simply put my boot drive on my hdd, but when i try to create the image it says that the image would be 711GB because its including all of my hdd (which contains all my user libraries and downloads). My question is: how do I make windows stop thinking that my hdd is a system drive so that I can create a reasonably sized image, or more generally: how can i easily move my boot drive to my hdd? Also, I've read some posts about using "easyBCD" to accomplish the latter but I'm not sure that's exactly what i need in this situation.
I have a Sony Viao which does not have a disc drive and came with Windows 7 ready installed (installation was done automatically along side the process of starting computer up for first time after purchase). I cannot remember my administrator password which in itself has caused many problems; to get around this, I think I need to re-install windows - but to do this as a function on the computer (i.e. through the 'recovery' option on 'Assist' button/function) I must access it as an administrator. I think I need to reinstall manually through command prompt, can anyone tell me how to do this? Or do they have any additional advice?
I don't have a Windows 7 disc (I've seen the 'creating a bootable USB installer' videos etc, but these seem to require a disc with windows on from which the USB is made, which I don't have!) Hence I think I need to go through command prompt...
My computer literacy is not very good and I am, to be honest, at a loss of how else to get around this problem(and I would rather not spend a massive amount of money I don't have sending it to a PC shop, if i can help it)...the computer itself is not old (it was brought in August 2011) and already once or twice there had been an issue with Windows were an error occured and it appeared to 'forget' windows existed (box appears saying "operating system not found..."), I switched it to 'safe mode' and restarted it and the problem appeared to correct itself but...
Please help! The problem is fairly urgent! I am also worried that it has a virus as I haven't been able to install new anti-virus software (requires admin password for installs etc) and hence I would like to correct the underlying problem of having no administrative authority to correct other problems asap!
As SSDs are undoubtedly the way to go for the OS and booting, I am curious how one can configure Windows 7 to install on C: yet save all user data on D: (which is where the 2TB drive is). The main reason being the space is limited on C (SSD is only 90GB) and the media structure of the user library with videos, documents, etc can easily span hundreds of gigs.Is the only way to do this to manually change the user location to D:? If so, how is this done?I'll be building a number of systems soon and want to have some sort of C: boot D: user data standard which falls within the management of the traditional Windows 7 Library structure.
I recently purchased a Dell Xps 1340 laptop that came with windows 7 32 bit professional. After a few months, I needed to wipe the hard disk, and so I did. Before I did, I extracted my product key with a program that I downloaded off the internet. I got the following information:
Windows 7 Professional Product Part No.: X15-37377 Installed from 'OEM' media. Product ID: ******* match to CD Key data CD Key: ********* Computer Name: ***-PC Registered Owner: *** Registered Organization:
Anyway, I had a RETAIL windows 7 professional disc, and I installed this onto my dell laptop. However, it keeps telling me that my product key is wrong when I try to activate. I have tried both 32bit and 64bit? is it because I'm using a RETAIL windows 7 disc? If I try a dell oem disc, will that work with my product key?
Would formating my hardrive and reinstalling Windows 7 speed up my laptop?Which way will be the best to do it? Do i create a partition not to lose all graphix and sounds software?
I use a Macbook for my personal use usually, but when I turned on my PC after not using it for a couple of months, all of my user information is gone: Documents, music, everything. The only thing is I don't think it's gone, I can't access my music using iTunes on that machine, but I can access it using Windows media player. If I try to open OneNote pages, I get nothing. I have run Spybot and AVG antivirus. It seems as though my user account information is being hidden. Other user accounts (my wife's and a guest account) are working just fine. I would prefer not to return to a restor point, as I don't even know when this was lost.
I have a Toshiba laptop that came with a preinstalled copy of Windows-7 (64 bit) version purchased in July 2010. No setup disk came with the laptop, but there is a "Toshiba recovery media creator" utility. Now, I want to format my laptop, and here I have few queries regarding this:
[1] What is the better option for formatting my drive? Should I use the Toshiba media-creator or install a clean version of Windows-7 from an ISO download (am I allowed to do that? If so, what is a good site to download?) There is a "sticker-certificate" on the bottom of my laptop with a product-key. Will it work with the new install?
[2] Do I have the option of installing a 32-bit version of Windows-7 instead of 64-bit with the above license? The reason is that most applications I use are 32-bit and hence a 32-bit OS is better suited for me. But does the license allow me to do that?
[3] (The tricky part) - Since I have a good 320GB HDD, I want to dual-boot by creating two partitions - with a linux distribution (Ubuntu/openSuse) running on the second partition? Assuming I don't have the option of clean-install, will I be able to create the extra partition for linux using the Toshiba utility?
