File access trouble after backup to ext HD

[TimWS6]

I recently bought an external HD to backup my media files before formatting my main HD. One of the folders I copied to the ext HD was set as a "hidden" directory. Everything seemed to copy over fine, ie: shows correct file types, dates, names, and sizes, but when I try to open any of the "hidden" files it says that I don't have permission to access the file. I tried to change the attributes after the fact but no luck there either. All the data seems to be there, I just can't access it. Does anyone know of a way to fix this or am I just SOL?

TIA

[rowle1jt]

Have you tried a file recovery program? I know some of them "strip" file permissions when the files are recovered.

What about copying them back to the host pc?

[TimWS6]

Have you tried a file recovery program? I know some of them "strip" file permissions when the files are recovered.

What about copying them back to the host pc?

I haven't tried a recovery program but thanks for the tip. Do you know the name of one off hand? I'll search for one when I have time.

I tried copying them back to the PC but they did the same thing after that.

[Nomad101]

Have you tried taking ownership of the folder and files? That resets all permissions.

You need to be logged in as an administrator to do this:
right click on the folder, choose properties and go to the security tab.
Click on the Advanced button at the bottom.
Click on the Owner tab at the top.
In the "Change owner to" box select Administrators or your username.
Check the box at the bottom that says "replace owner on subcontainers".
Click apply or okay.

Let us know if that sorts it.

Cheers
Tony

[TimWS6]

Have you tried taking ownership of the folder and files? That resets all permissions.

You need to be logged in as an administrator to do this:
right click on the folder, choose properties and go to the security tab.
Click on the Advanced button at the bottom.
Click on the Owner tab at the top.
In the "Change owner to" box select Administrators or your username.
Check the box at the bottom that says "replace owner on subcontainers".
Click apply or okay.

Let us know if that sorts it.

Cheers
Tony

Nope I'll try that when I get home and report back. Thanks

[TimWS6]

Have you tried taking ownership of the folder and files? That resets all permissions.

You need to be logged in as an administrator to do this:
right click on the folder, choose properties and go to the security tab.
Click on the Advanced button at the bottom.
Click on the Owner tab at the top.
In the "Change owner to" box select Administrators or your username.
Check the box at the bottom that says "replace owner on subcontainers".
Click apply or okay.

Let us know if that sorts it.

Cheers
Tony

Ok I'm definitely logged in as admin because I only have 1 account on my pc and I've never run into this trouble until after the backup. I tried to do what you listed before but I don't have a "security" tab when I right click on the folder (running xp sp2 by the way). There is "general", "sharing", and "customize" tabs. I may not have been specific enough in my first post but the folder let me edit the attributes to remove it from being hidden but the files within have the attribute of "encrypt contents to secure data" checked and will not open. When I try to uncheck that option it gives me "access denied". Thanks for the help guys. I know there are a lot of gurus on this site.

edit: also just noticed that some of the files in said folder do not show up as hidden and have the same problem. They all have an advanced attribute of "encrypt contents to secure data" checked and it will not let me uncheck it.

[kayleigh]

Was this directory copied back to the same computer? XP file encryption is dependent on a security certificate that's mapped to your user account & it's specific to the computer. If you haven't renamed the account used to encrypt the files, changed the password for that account, or otherwise lost the original XP installation, the certificate should still be valid to decrypt those files.

[TimWS6]

Was this directory copied back to the same computer? XP file encryption is dependent on a security certificate that's mapped to your user account & it's specific to the computer. If you haven't renamed the account used to encrypt the files, changed the password for that account, or otherwise lost the original XP installation, the certificate should still be valid to decrypt those files.

Hmmm. Well they went back to the same PC after I used partition magic to change my allocated space then did a format, but I copied them over to the external HD before all that and I'm not able to access them over there either.

[Nomad101]

Okay, I thought it was a permissions problem but now realise it's actually an encryption problem.

The only way I know of that you should be able to open those files is on the original XP installation so if you formatted and re-installed XP then I'm afraid they're probably gone for good (unless your account was part of a domain).

So since copying those files to the external HD have you re-installed XP on the PC they came from or is it still the original XP installation?

Cheers
Tony

[TimWS6]

It's the same installation. I just had to move some things around and free up some space.

To clarify, this was on my 2nd HD so it did get formatted but my main HD is where the OS was and it was untouched in the process.