Member Avatar for bops

Hi people, I am having major trouble with my computer. Yesterday windows had some sort of fatal error somehow code c000021a or something like that. My primary objective is to make sure all of my files on my harddrive are backed up before i can re-install XP. My dad is a computer support technician and tried all sorts of ways to try and backup my files. Up until now, my dad has installed a second copy of XP on my laptop and used "Winternals" to access my old files and tried to move them onto the working copy of XP. I managed to get all i needed moved onto the new copy of XP and when i restart and boot up this copy of XP and try to open the files, in most cases I am denied from them...with all kinds of files I am getting messages like Access is denied...the file is currently being used by another program access denied...etc etc...I know that the files are not being used by other programs etc, but they still dont allow me access. Can anyone please help me on this asap ? Thanks.

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ran into a common post-reinstall problem: files that were copied from an old installation refuse access on the new install. The two things to separate immediately are (A) NTFS ownership/ACL problems and (B) EFS encryption (not the same as NTFS compression). Several replies touched this — correctly urged backing data off the system partition, and asked for where the second XP was installed — both points are relevant to the recovery approach.

Practical checklist (do these in order and do not reformat):

  • Confirm whether files are encrypted or just permission-blocked. In Explorer encrypted names usually appear green; right‑click → Properties → Advanced shows either “Encrypt contents to secure data” (EFS) or “Compress contents to save disk space” (compression).
  • If EFS is present: the private key that encrypts those files is stored in the original user profile. The only reliable recovery is to get that certificate/private key from the original installation (export a .pfx from the old account’s Certificate store) and import it into the new install; only then can files be decrypted. If the old Windows can still be booted or the old profile folder and registry hive are intact, export the certificate before doing anything else. Without the private key, EFS-encrypted files are effectively unrecoverable by normal means.
  • If it’s a permissions/ownership issue: disable Simple File Sharing (if present), use the Security → Advanced → Owner tab to take ownership and replace on subfolders, then grant Administrators full control. As a command-line option, an example to grant Administrators full control recursively is:
cacls "D:\OldUsers\bops\My Documents" /T /E /C /G Administrators:F
  • If locking/“file in use” errors persist, boot from an offline environment (WinPE/BartPE or a Linux live CD) and copy the files to an external drive. Note: copying encrypted EFS files off an offline system preserves the ciphertext — they still require the original key to read.

If the certificate/key cannot be recovered, the remaining options are restoring from backups or professional recovery services; EFS is designed to be strong. The above steps tie back to earlier advice in this thread and focus on preserving the original profile material before any reinstall.

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Member Avatar for bops

I have just tried again to open a file somehow and it looks like it has been encrypted to save disk space before it has been moved to the new XP..with no users that have access to the file on this copy of XP.

Member Avatar for jaishankar

Hi people, I am having major trouble with my computer. Yesterday windows had some sort of fatal error somehow code c000021a or something like that. My primary objective is to make sure all of my files on my harddrive are backed up before i can re-install XP. My dad is a computer support technician and tried all sorts of ways to try and backup my files. Up until now, my dad has installed a second copy of XP on my laptop and used "Winternals" to access my old files and tried to move them onto the working copy of XP. I managed to get all i needed moved onto the new copy of XP and when i restart and boot up this copy of XP and try to open the files, in most cases I am denied from them...with all kinds of files I am getting messages like Access is denied...the file is currently being used by another program access denied...etc etc...I know that the files are not being used by other programs etc, but they still dont allow me access. Can anyone please help me on this asap ? Thanks.

What do u mean by moved all the files to working copy of XP. You are not copying ur files to XP but you are copying ur files to Hard drive. How many OS u install it doesn't matter ur files are still on the same Hard drive. You should boot ur computer with a bootable disk and move all ur files (Files in Mydocuments, My Music, Desktop which u have saved, but not the program files, documents and settings and windows folders) from C drive to another drive bcoz this is the drive were the OS is installed. Format C drive and reinstall OS. Your files in other drives will be safer and they can be accessed after u install ur new copy of OS

Member Avatar for BinaryMayhem

intresting, can you start off by stateing your OS version (pro, ...) , sp level, and give us the exact error code? furthermore, where did you install the 2nd copy of windows too? another drive... is your hdd partitioned? if you have another working copy of windows on your hdd why do you need winternals? where are you trying to move your data to? and from where? (drive letters or folders please)

also, about your stop run, assuming you gave the exact error code...

any way, we need more information here... you didn't state where this "access denied" error is occuring, what your moving to where.. what program you are in (windows, winternals)...

Member Avatar for darussian12

i think i am having a similar problem as the originalthread author....first i just switched from Mac to PC so i knew i would get into a lot of trouble messing with random settings unlike the stuff i could do safely on a Mac...but i used some registry cleaner and it messed up my laptop so i used the gateway restore disk that came with the laptop and because i did not have a backup partition the restore disk was still able to install a clean copy of XP home and back up the entire C drive i had previously...the program files, the Windows folder, and most imp my documents folder. the back up folder is named "My Backup -- 06-09-21 0207AM" automatically by the gateway utility and i can access and open everything in the backup folder EXCEPT my user folder which has all my songs and papers for school....when i click on the user folder...in my case named "Alex_Beall" i get the great message that the folder is not acessable and on the next line windows states that access is denied...there is no numerical erroc code that pops up just the message. So how come i cant access this one and most imp to me but all the rest i could care less about i cant. is there a simple way to fix this. i tried to put all the info you uys requested from the original posted in my problem but i dont know if ya need more since ive been using a PC for 3 weeks now after 4 years of Mac....thanks for any help

Member Avatar for frank4056

I have a similar problem. I was transferrin some pictures from a cd to an external hard drive when all of the sudden it froze. I cancelled the process and rebooted the sysytem. Now i cant get into any of my icon including my computer. basically i cant do anything. I have been able to use my secondary log on name but it does not have any of the privilages of the main administrator. Also i cannot delete the files from the external hard drive. Is this a virus?

Member Avatar for Suspishio

In my past experience, this is a user privileges issue. I had this happen a couple of months ago. I think it occurs because the user name might be the same as beforw for the "owner" of the folder, but it isn't really on the new system. So access is denied even if you have Admin rights.

How did I get round this? I used the CMD window in another PC to get the files off. Then I copied them back on the original machine.

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