FOAK: Win XP question

As there are several peeps wot knows about this sort of thing here I
thought I'd take the liberty of paging the FOAK. . . .

I have a new PC - the mobo on the old one let go. I'd like to reinstate
all my email messages from the old hard drive so I put said hd into new
machine as a second drive and can root around the disc but can't access
the bits under my old user name, where all the stuff I want is.
(mydocuments/<user> etc)

Is there anyway (easy?) way around this so I can get at the files??

TIA

 

Give us a clue what email client you were using?

If outlook then your looking for a .pst file your looking for, not sure
about any other client.

A

 

Seems to be more a problem with permissions on folders created for
users with profiles that don't exist on the new PC?

Don't know the answer though, if a top level admin login can't see
them.

 

If all else fails, how about a linux (say Puppy) live CD and mount the
new and old drives to move stuff about ?

 

As far as Windows is concerned, your current user is not the same as
your old user, even if they have the same name.

You need to either grant your current user permission to access those
files, or make your current user the owner of those directories, either
of which you should be able to do as an administrator.

 

I'm logged in as admin - it's not playing ball - probably finger
trouble ;-(

 

Have you set all files and folder visible in folder options view ?

the files are in c:\documents and settings\user name\application
data\microsoft\outlook

 

I can see them all to a point c:\documents and settings\user
name\application

If I try to expand application folder it denies me access - FWIW
there's no + sign to the left od the application folder - so it
suggests to me it's not going tgo do owt!

 

First thing I checked and they are set to show . . .

 

If go into properties for the folder (as your admin login), then have a
poke round in permissions there is an option to change the owner of the
folder, change it to your root user and check the box to apply
recursively. Given a few mins I can probably have a look and get you
better instructions.

 

can you boot the new PC from the old drive? The drivers will be wrong but
you should be able to run in safe mode.

If the files are for outlook express then there's a handy utility at
http://www.oehelp.com/ for backing up files.

 

In the properties, go into the security tab, click advanced at the
bottom. In the new window click the owner tab and use this to change the
owner to your new admin user.

 

Tried that before and it didn't weant to know. Just tried it again and
bingo! I blame it squarely on the operator - thanks!