Access Files in My Documents after an XP Repair or Re-Install

Are you having problems accessing the My Documents files on a hard drive that you repaired or re-installed windows on and a new account was made. If you are then the steps below should allow you to access the files if they are still on your hard drives. Note-This will not work if you done a full format of the drive.

• Open Folder Options in Control Panel, go to the view tab, under "hidden files and folders" put a dot in "show hidden files and folders" and ignore any warning. Then under the advanced, take the tick out of "Use simple file sharing [Recommended]". This will now show the security tab in folder properties and allow you to access hidden folders too (This step is usually enough to sort the access sharing problem, if it doesn't then continue with the next steps below)
• Open My Computer to view your hard drives > right click the drive (probably C or D) you want to be able to access the documents on > select properties > select security tab > then click the advanced button > select Owner tab > select your current user profile and put a tick in "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" box at the bottom.
• Now go to the Permissions tab > select the SYSTEM entry and press edit and under "Full control" put a tick in Allow and then press ok
• Now go to the Permissions tab again > select the Administrator entry and press press edit and under "Full control" put a tick in Allow and then press ok
• Now go to the Permissions tab again > select your own account this time and press edit and under "Full control" put a tick in Allow and then press ok
• Now go to the Permissions tab again and put a tick in "Replace permission entries..." box at the bottom of the box and click OK. (It will take a few minutes to change the permissions and ownership on every file on the drive). When it gets to some subfolders that it cannot access it will ask you if you want to give yourself full permissions click yes
• Now if you go to C:\Document and Settings there will be a list of users and you should be able to see your old usernames in this list. If you open the folder in there you will be able to see your old My Documents and old favorites etc. it is a simple matter of copying and pasting any items into your new favorites and My Documents folders

**If the folder Document and Settings doesn't appear in your C: drive then do a search of your whole comp for the Documents and Settings folder as it could be on a different named drive other than C:**