Thread: Copying files

After buying a new computer I installed the hard (Jisk from JUY old computer into it to transfer my documents across. Every time I tried to access the files to copy them a message told me that access had been denied. There was a password on the user account.

The problem here is that Windows thinks it does not have permission to access these files. This is partly due to the fact that there was a password on the old user account.
The solution is to give the new user account ownership of the files. This gives it the permission to do what it wants with them edit, copy or even delete.

Changing this is fairly straightforward, but it requires using Safe Mode for Windows XP Home. Safe Mode is not necessary if the computer uses Windows XP Professional or Media Center. First start Windows in Safe Mode. To do this reboot the computer and press F8 before Windows starts loading. Instead of the Windows logo, a menu should appear with the top option 'Safe Mode' selected. Move up and down the menu using the cursor keys to select Safe Mode, then press Enter. Some extra text will appear during startup; you can ignore this as it is quite normal when using Safe Mode.

Log on to the computer using an account with administrator rights. This will most likely be the normal user account. There is a small change that needs to be made to the Folder options before the change of ownership can be made. Left-click on the Start button and then on My uomputer. Click on the Tools menu, then Folder Options. Click on the View Tab. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Advanc«d settings section and click in the box labelled 'Use simple file sharing (Recommended)' so that the tick disappears. Click on OK to save the changes.

Left-click on the Stati button and then on My Computer. Double-click on the icon for the hard disk from the old computer and then right-click on Documents and Settings.
Select Properties from the menu that appears and then click on the Security tab. This tab will not appear if the simple file-sharing option has not been changed.

CI ick on the Advanced button at the bottom of the window and then on the Owner tab. If your login name appears in the Name section left-click on it once, otherwise select Administrators. Click on the box labelled 'Replace owner on subcontainers and objects' so that a tick appears. Click on OK and then Yes when the message 'You do have permission to read the contents of directory Documents and Settings. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you FuJ I Control' appears.
Repeat for any other folders on the computer that have files which need to be copied across. More information can be found on the Microsoft website