Accessing data on cloned drive

In preparation to upgrading my OS from XP Home to XP Pro, I cloned my main drive to an external USB drive.
I did this for 2 reasons,
1 I wanted an ability to go back if I wanted and
2 I wanted access to my old data and downloaded apps so that I could move/copy as appropriate.

Cloning was no problem, I even did a cursory 'viewing' of the clone to verify some of the contents and all 'appeared' fine.

Now for the problem.
After doing a fresh install of XP Pro to include formatting the boot drive I find I cannot access the folder that has/had the bulk of my data. I am able to access and copy info from a number of folders on the drive but the folder \Documents and Settings\MainUser gives me an Access is Denied error and indicates that the folder is empty when if fact it 'should' have 25-30gb of data. The 'size' of the clone correctly reflects the amount of space used by the old drive so to me the info has to be on there somewhere?

So the question is, should I not be able to access all of the information on the clone 'normally' or do I in fact have to install the clone in my computer as the main/boot drive?

Thanks

 

Log in as Administrator on the boot drive and see if that helps.

 

The files have the access permissions of your old user account. You'll have to take ownership of the inaccessible files in order to view them. Look up "Take Ownership" on Microsoft's web site.

 

That is the answer and while it appears that I have to 'take ownership' all the way to the file level which will be tedious, at least I know all of the info is there and retrievable.

Thanks!

Wabos

 

You can also boot with a BartPE cd and retrieve your files that way. No "Ownership" priviledges needed.

 

Downloaded software and created a BartPE cd, full access as advertised.

Thanks!

Wabos

 

Wabos:

There is a way to do this in one fell swoop. You could have selected your user profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\Your_User_Name) and checked the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" to take ownership of all of the files in one step. But glad you found an alternate solution.

 

Actually I did try that after reading the info on Microsoft forums re:Taking Ownership. After checking the box for "Replace permission entries....." the system 'seemed' to be scannning all of the folders/files on the disk and making the change but after a number of minutes of displaying individual files/folders it finished with everything the same, ie I cannot access the info.

With the BartPE I just copied all of the pertinent info onto the 'clean' drive so I can now access it normally.

I really appreciate the help.

Wabos

 

BartPE .... never leave your computer without one.