[Arin]

My cousins computer had a major error. when it started up it said it could not find the c:\windows\system32\config\system file, or it was corrupt. To solve this put in the windows cd, reboot and hit R at the first screen.


I did this, got into the recovery console, went to that path and the file was there, but apparently it was corrupt. I renamed the system. to system.bak and coppied the system.sav as system. . Restarted, and it tried to reinstall windows. I did.

My cousin had been loggin in as administrator. when the computer started up, there was his administrator folder with all his settings. I cant log in as administrator. I'm instead loggin in as administrator which is linked to the administrator.computer_name folder. Wonderful.

So I figured, oh well... atleast I can get all his files out of my documents from the original administrator folder.

WRONG.

he had a password on it and it doesnt even prompt you for it.
How the hell can you get the documents back!
F U my documents.

[GVB]

Do you have administrator rights with your current login (even though you are not logged in the way he did?) If you have admin rights you can right click on the START button and hit <explore> and this should list all user profiles for logging in. Try and find his login name there and under it should be his <my documents> folder.
If that dont work hit F8 when booting up until you see a list of options, select safe mode. This will get you in as an administrator then try the START button idea listed above.
Post if this works.

[theefool]

What OS is this? 2k, XP home or pro?

If it is pro, you need to set ownership and permissions on said folder. If this is Home, you need to download a utility from MS that enables permission setting in XP Home. If this is not XP at all, then there are other things to try. Without knowing what exactly you have, I can't help.

[Arin]

This is XP pro. I can see the folder and the my documents folder but I cannot get into them.

So if he right clicks on the administrator folder he can take ownership of it? He is currently loggin in as an administrator.

[theefool]

First, you need to get into explorer, go to Tools, Folder options, select the view tab and uncheck "Use simple file sharing (recommended)".

Now, go to the folder in question, right click said folder, and go to properties. Then select the security tab. Next click the advanced button, click the owner tab, highlight the current logged in admin user. Check the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects." Hit apply. Next go to Permissions and if ye want to add someone else to this folder, go ahead. Otherwise hit okay and okay again.

There is a command line tool that I like to use instead of the gui and it is called CACLS.