Need some advice on what to do with a locked hard drive

[LargeFry]

A couple days ago I received a re-furbed Gateway DX4200 tower.  I'd like to transfer some photo's and music files from my old Compaq to this new Gateway, so my Dad has a Belkin easy transfer cable to transfer data with, but the old Compaq uses XP Pro and the Gateway uses Vista and the cable wasn't compatible with XP.  So, I just put my old Compaq hard drive into the Gateway.  The Gateway uses a Sata drive, and the Compaq uses the IDE.  I pluged the IDE ribbon into the mother board and started up the computer to find all my photos and music files are locked under the Compaq's user name.

So, I'd like to get some advice as to the best/easiest way to unlock my photos and music.  I've googled and searched on here for advice but haven't found anything decisive.  The gateway didn't have a wireless card so I used the one from my Compaq.  Should I get another wireless card, put the old drive back into the Compaq and use the network to transfer stuff?  Is there a program that can do this, or maybe a trick or something?

Thanks a bunch   

[Mitz]

Hit there...Welcome...

When you say the hard drive is locked...can you see it in my computer (or computer for vista)? When you go to access it what is the error message? Is it asking for a password? Is this Compaq hard  drive showing up in the bios?

[LargeFry]

Yes, it comes up in explorer as the I drive. 

-I'll click on the I drive, Documents and Settings, Andre (that's the user name), My Documents, then I'll try to open My Music or My Photos and it'll give me this error "You don't currently have permission to access this folder." 

-If I click continue it says "You have been denied permission to access this folder." 

-Under that it says: "To gain access to this folder you will need to use the security tab." 

-If I go to the security tab, then click Advanced, click Owner tab, then I have an option to edit a new owner. 

-If I do that I can unlock a single folder.  I have to then repeat the process for every file in that folder.  If I fiddle with it some more I can unlock or change the user name and gain access to a single photo.  I've got hundreds of photos and mp3's so it's not a realistic option.

Any ideas?

[Mitz]

ok
Are you logged in as admin? Or are you just a normal user.
If you are not sure you can go to user accounts by clicking on the picture in the top right corner of the start menu....

Another thing you can check is if you are logged in as admin then does admin have all the permissions set right for this newly installed drive?
See the screenshot below...I have admin and it can do anthing on this drive...This is the properties of the entire drive, not the individual files or folders.



Can you check all these things out for me and then get back to me...There is obviously no problem with the way you have installed the hard drive as it seems all good, but vista has major permission issues.

[Mitz]

Sorry to but in between your reply but I will add another note now because you can probably check this setting also.

You might have to take ownership before you change permissions.... I am not sure as I haven't come across this problem yet.

Right click on the folder you want to open like my pictures, then click properties, press the advanced button, go to the owner tab, click the edit button. Make sure the you tick the box that says "replace ownership on subfolders" , then select your account from the list above and click apply and ok.

[LargeFry]

Thanks for the tips.  I made sure that I'm logged in as the Admin.  I made sure everything says that I'm the owner.  I've right clicked everything I can think of on the drive, gone to preferences and "shared" as many folders and what not as I could.  Even after doing that I still cant view the photos or music.  If I right click the My Photos folder and go to the security tab I have an option to edit permissions.  If I fiddle with the options there I can get full control of permissions to the current PC's user name, and I can share it with the current PC's user name.  What get's me is under the general tab, next to the word Attributes there's a box checked and labeled "Read-only."  If I uncheck it and click apply I get an error message like this:

"You will need to provide administrative permissions to change these attributes
Click continue to change this operation"

If I click continue then I get this error message:

"An error occured while applying attributes to the file.

I:\ Documents and Settings blah blah

Access is denied."

I don't know if that's relevant or not.  I really don't understand why I can't view the files.  Everything seems in order.  Can you think of any other way?  Maybe I can put the hard drive back in the old computer and fiddle with it there?  What about a jumper on the back of the drive, would that change anything?  I really appreciate the help.

[Mitz]

So you have definitely checked the box to own all subfolders etc in the drive..
If you took a jumber out of the back of the drive it should make it cable select but you have no other hard drive on the same cable....But you have accessed the drive. It should be fine..Give it a try though...because you just never know...

I still think its the permissions. All you have to do is miss one little thing.

Maybe its got something to do with the files being created under Windows XP. Let me tell you now, if you were connecting this hard drive to a Windows Seven computer there wouldn't be a problem. Vista is a big problem...

I have looked around the internet and this problem has not been solved out there...

Would you like to try a few more things before you resort to putting it back into the old computer.

[LargeFry]

BINGO!!  I right clicked the I drive, Properties, under the Security tab i clicked Advanced, under the owner tab I clicked the Edit button, then I noticed the check box next to "Replace owner of subcontainers and objects", then clicked apply and it did it's thing.  Good god how obscure that little check box was.  Thanks so much Mitz I owe you one!  Hopefully someone with the same problem will pull this up on a google search.

Now for your viewing pleasure:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-NLPH8JeM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-NLPH8JeM</a>

[Mitz]

That's great!!!        Thanks for letting us know...

Make sure you come back with all your computer questions...