Folders become inaccessible when cloned

I cloned the hard drive onto a USB drive before doing a full reformat/restore on the computer, and now I want to burn a DVD with all of the data. I find that now I can't open the hidden folders in Documents and Settings, such as ~owner\local settings\application data. This is a bad thing, since Outlook stores the .pst file there.

What can I do to get access to these folders? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

 

Since it is a Clone and not an Image, have you tried using Windows Explorer to look at the files on the external usb drive?

 

Yes, I get "... is not accessible. Access is denied."

 

Immediately after the cloning process, did you disconnect the external before rebooting with the system drive? I thought it was the system (original) drive whose folders became inaccessible.

 

The way I cloned it was to remove the hard drive from the laptop, and plug it into another desktop I use for testing. I then cloned the drive onto the USB drive using Acronis True Image Home on the desktop.

 

The reason I did it this way is because the laptop only has a USB 1.1 port and the cloning would have taken hours.

 

Ah ... so it is a laptop drive ... is this one then still bootable in the laptop and all folders accessible?
What version and build number of True Image are you using?

 

Well, no - once I had the clone I felt safe in restoring the laptop to factory using its restore partition, so now the only copy of the drive is the clone. I'm using version 10.0, build 4,871

 

Are you accessing the files on the clone from the laptop via a network? If so have you turned on file sharing for the cloned drive so you can access it from the laptop? Can you plugin the external drive on the laptop and access the files that way?

 

I just tried plugging the USB drive into the laptop, and I get the same result - Access is denied.

Is there a registry key that can turn this off for a folder?

 

You might try updating to the latest build 4,942 and see if that helps.

For any others that are reading this, with True Image, until you have tested a Clone (or Image after Restoring it) by rebooting the destination drive, you can never be sure that it is going to work. Even a successful validation of an Image does not mean that it will work after a restore.

 

Sorry, but how would this help? I have the clone on the USB drive and I'm not using True Image for anything at this stage.

 

Can you put the clone drive back in the laptop and boot from it. Then make a complete disk backup(not a clone) to the USB drive. Once that has completed you can reinstall the new drive and "Mount" the image to copy over any files you need.
The other option is to boot from the rescue CD with the USB drive attached to the laptop and then try to copy the files that way. Also take a look at this from Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881 and this one http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&Product=winxp. Also this website http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8914.html. I think you have to change the permissions to solve your problem. If your running XP Home you will have to boot into Safe mode to do this change.

 

I can't put the cloned drive in the laptop - the clone's a 5.25" drive. I'd have to buy a laptop drive and clone the 5.25" drive to the laptop drive. I'm going to try to clone the USB drive back to the 2.5" in the desktop system I used to do the initial cloning, then put it back in the laptop and see what happens.

Thanks for the references - they only seem to apply if I get the 2.5" back into the laptop and then have a problem opening those folders...

I've really created a mess here, haven't I...

 

No they apply because you used two different installations of XP which is what is causing the permissions problem. Did you even try them? Its fare easier to try this then to swap drives.

 

You may have to take ownership of the folders that give "Access is Denied." Right-click on the folders, Properties, Security tab, Advanced, Owner tab, select a user, check the "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects", click OK. After you do this, you will be able to see the contents of these folders.

Also, you could plug this USB drive into something running Ubuntu and see everything without changing anything. Then burn the needed files to DVD, share them using samba, etc.

 

cornertech, you hit it on the nose - using the reference from Tom K http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&Product=winxp I was able to take ownership with the USB drive plugged into the laptop. cornertech, you missed one step, and that it if it's XP Home, you have to boot into Safe Mode and log on as an administrator to see the Security tab in Properties.

Anyway, thanks much to all - I really appreciate the help!

Cheers,

 

You're welcome! Didn't know you had XP Home, though you're correct. As I mentioned before, in the situation where you need to see these folders' contents, you can hook the drive up to a Ubuntu Linux computer, browse to the appropriate folders, and copy them to a CD or DVD. This is great for when you don't want to change anything on the old drive, like if you were saving it for a quick swap for when your main drive fails or gets corrupted.

(However, if you're using Encrypting File System, not so much.)

I've done this many times for customers' computers, esp. the ones that don't boot anymore.