denied access to my own files!!!

[manwithplan]

hey everyone

im having a bit of a problem with a bunch of files on my pc at the moment basically any files tht ive created/saved before a certain date (mainly movie trailers) give me access denied errors. Ive tried changing the permissions and ownerships of the files (in win2k) but its sti;; giving me the same errors.

I did have the files on my dads system for a while and i think i changed some permissions of them on that pc but presumeably any changes ive done since should have overwritten those changes?

if anyone has any ideas they be greatly appreciated!

thanks
c.

PS if you want/need any more details then just let me know

 

[AndyHui]

Did you have those files encrypted? Perform a chkdsk....see if you have any errors.

 

[manwithplan]

ta for the quick reply!

files definitely werent encrypted, hidden maybe but not encrypted. did a chkdsk and it came up completely clean.

c.

 

[jamesbond007]

Do you have these files on a NTFS partition? If so, try copying them to a FAT32 partition or onto another machine and see if you can open them. Also, are you logged in as the main administrator?

 

[Abzstrak]

take ownership of them...

 

[Creedyou]

are u an admin?

 

[manwithplan]

im part of the admin and power users groups but not the explicit admin at the moment. files are all on ntfs partitions and ive assigned ownership to all files on that partition to the admins group...

 

[rhacquer]

What he said... from a DOS prompt, type ATTRIB /? to find the right switches so you can take ownership.

 

[manwithplan]

cheers guys

ill try the dos prompt one when i get home after work and uni tonight!

c.

 

[Woodie]

attrib has nothing to do w/ file ownership or NTFS permissions. Just Readonly, Archive, System and Hidden.

Are you absolutely positive the files/folders were not EFS encrypted? The symptoms you described match exactly the situation where a user has lost(deleted) their private key.

 

[manwithplan]

im fairly certain that I didnt do anything with efs encryption however ive tried everything else and nothing is changing

is there a way to fix the efs lost key problem or do i now have a lot of completely useless files?

thanks everyone
c.

 

[Abzstrak]

if it was encrypted, your screwed

 

[Woodie]

First, let's figure out if the files are encrypted:

1. Open up an Explorer window, and navigate to the problem folder.
2. Right-click a problem file, and choose Properties.
3. Click Advanced
4. Is the last check-box ticked or clear? ("Encrypt contents to secure data")
If YES, then the files/folder is encrypted and that is the source of your problem. If NO, then you'll have to look for another solution.
If YES, then we need to figure out exactly where the files were first encrypted, and by which user. So, go back to the source (if you still have them). Decryption keys are USER specific and MACHINE specific (by default).

So, if the files were encrypted on Dads PC, under ID DAD, then you should be able to move the files back to Dads PC, logon as DAD, and get access to the files. For this EFS stuff, we're going to need really detailed information.

 

[manwithplan]

unfortunately they are encrypted, just check before your post woodie

i mustve changed the check box accidentally on his pc when i was 'borrowing' the HD space from him at the time.

ive tried copying them onto my dads pc but im not allowed access to the files apparently. i get an "access denied - source file may be in use" error. weird thing is i was able to copy the files from his pc back to mine originally...

ive also tried copying them from this pc from my dads (me sitting at dads pc and grabbing them off the network share) but get the same error.

I did have this hard drive in my old rig i was running as a server for a wee while so ill try putting it back in and seeing if i can get at the files from that system (the 2k AS install is still present on the boot partition of this HD)

c.