Access Denied

Scenario: You have just reinstalled Windows XP Pro on your Boot partition.
After everything is up and running, you go to open a text file on your data partition and get an error "Access Denied." How can this happen? Why can I not open my file anymore?

I get this question more than most on the support list that I belong. Here is the solution:

When you reinstall Windows, The SID (Security Identifier) is changed and the access tokens for all users are changed.Therefore, the files you are trying to open are no longer owned by you.

To open the files again, you need to take ownership of the files.

First log on as the local administrator.

Make sure that Simple File Sharing is turned off: Open Windows Explorer - click on the Tools menu - select Folder Options - Click on the View tab - scroll all the way to the bottom and uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)."

Now navigate to the file or folder in question. Right click on the file and choose properties. Click on the Security tab, then click on Advanced. Open the Owner Tab. In the Change owner to box is a list of users that have permissions to take ownership of the object. Select the user to take ownership and press the Apply Button.

Once you have taken ownership as administrator, the ownership of the file can be granted to the user of your choice.