Hello there!

Several weeks ago I downloaded drivers for my motherboard
and SATA disk drive to upgrade my computer system. Upon
rebooting my system, the mother board could not read the
SATA disk and windows XP Professional would not boot up.
For some odd reason, the drivers I had downloaded for the
SATA disk were not compatable and the disk would not boot
up.

I figured all I would have to do is get my old IDE HDD out of
the closet, install it with a copy of windows from my original
disk and then pull all my information from the SATA drives
documents and settings folder, put it in the IDE drive, wipe
the SATA drive clean by formatting it, then load Windows
onto it again and everything would be fine. Of course I would
have to load all the programs I had back onto the SATA drive,
but I was ok with that.

When I went to pull the information from the SATA drive, I
got a rude awakening:

My SATA drive was password protected and I could not access
the documents and settings area for the disk.

"UHOH..." I said to myself.

After asking several computer techs about this problem and
getting the statment that I would have to have a forensic computer
tech get into the drive to retrieve the folders files at a cost starting
at $59.00 per hour, I was stunned. I just KNEW I could do this
myself if I knew what to do.

I started using computers back in the late 1970s when I was in
high school. I learned to write programs in the BASIC language. That
language is the forerunner to what C+++ is now. When I bought my
own personal computer in the mid 1980s, I immeadiately started
tinkering with it's settings, trying to make it run more efficiently
and faster.

I learned DOS commands and familiarized myself with each new
upgrade to the DOS system, right up to DOS 6.22. I even at that
point bought a 300 page book on the settings and commands of DOS 6.22.
I had my computer systems purring and set as fast and efficiently as possible.

Once Windows 98 came out, I still knew I needed those commands and I
kept that book for over 10 years, even though the only way to access
those commands was through the command prompt window.

With my new delema, i was at a loss. Each command I entered did NOTHING
to solve my problem. I tried everything I could think of to get access to
the files I needed so badly. No DOS command was going to work this time.

With an expensive forensic computer techs fee looming in my future, I
started to pray.

After about a week it came to me.

I went to google and typed in "Folder Access Denied" and my problem
was solved. Apparantly many people have had this happen to them when
they upgraded their systems and wanted to pull all the information from
their old systems and transfer the files and pictures they had to new systems.

This link will help you too.

The link above will give step by step instructions so you can eventually access
those password protected files and folders on an old hard drive.

I hope this information is helpful for someone who was almost at the point
of pulling thier hair out!

OH BTW... I will be BACKING UP my files and pictures to my old IDE drive
from now on so this will never happen again...hehehehe!!

Thanks to: Rainer Pfingst, Brenton Walker and
www.flickr.com for the GREAT pictures!