Sophy

Hello all! The reason for the silence is that I haven't been able to get my tower to power up since my last reply, until tonight. Every day I've come in here and done all the steps I mentioned previously and got nothing. Then tonight after work I walked in the computer room and the lights were blinking so I'm up for now. The frustration over this whole mess was about to push me over the edge so my husband took pity on me and told me to order a new computer and he would pay for it. I did. I'm just going to leave this one running until it gets here. As to the fix with unplugging the tower, holding the power button in and then plugging it back in -- I've done that I'm sure 50 times. The only difference is I only held the button in for 30 seconds as that is what the Dell tech said. It didn't work, but maybe if I held it in for 2 minutes it would. The way Stoic Joker described things in his recent post it sure sounds like he could be right -- power supply I must tell you all something pretty funny. Earlier someone commented, with regard to the problem of not being able to read CDs after the reinstall -- that if I were to install all the same drivers I had before I could probably read them. I decided to try that before I checked into this forum. I put the disc in that came with my computer that had Device Drivers on it and would you believe ... it wouldn't read the disc!! It showed as a blank disc. I do so wish I could do something to figure this deal out because the one disc has several hundred family photos taken over the past 18 months since my grandson was born. I'm going to try a program that was mentioned by someone -- IsoBuster. I'll check back in and let you know what happens. I think this reinstall which Dell led me through was a botched deal. I hope I'm not going to have to come right back here with a bunch of problems when I get my new machine. I'll check back unless this thing blows up on me. I want to thank each and every one of you because you've all been totally fantastic about taking your time and trying to help me. I can't express how much I've appreciated it! Sophy

I shouldn't even try to comment here tonight because I'm exhausted. Worked all day and been trying to research computer problems all night. I have another problem now. Sometimes my hard drive won't power up. It did this 10 days ago. Tech had me open hard drive, remove and reinsert memory cards and pull some big white plug and reinsert it and it finally powered up. Haven't had another problem and now tonight it did the same thing. I did all the things the tech had me do before, messed around for 3 hours (including trying a new power cord) and gave it up. A bit later I came back into the office to file some bills and kind of gave my hard drive a disgusted little shove and be darned if the lights didn't start flashing and it booted again. The only reason I'm mentioning this at all is because I've been researching online and according to quite a few things I read it sounded like this problem "might" be connected to something to do with the CD drives. So I'm wondering if this problem I'm having with CD drives isn't more extensive than I thought. I plan to try that IsoBuster thing -- thought I might run the Dell Diagnostics. I assumed that Dell reinstalled whatever CD burning software I had previously but maybe not. I have all my original disks. Would one of those allow me to reinstall whatever software I had originally, and if so, which one? E-Gads! You guys are dealing with a real novice here but I'm thinking I don't have to tell you that! RE this comment: "If you want Control of your files back, you'll need to run attrib -h -r -s *.* /S /D at the root of the user acount folder you're trying to recover files from." -- It sounds like something to try only I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do it. If you have time to draw me a map I'd be willing to attempt it. Well, I'm going to give this computer crap up for tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to power up tomorrow to see if anyone commented -- but the way things are going who knows??? Thanks all! Sophy

Replying to Idon'twantspam: I still haven't received my external backup device. Hope you have a grand vacation! Replying to Kelsenellenelvian: I wish I would have written here before I went through the complete reinstall with Dell. I so appreciate your answer, but I have to be honest and tell you that not being a computer tech by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just not willing to go through a complete wipe and reinstall of this system again. I had to write and beg quite a number of companies that I had programs through to send me my key and allow me to re-download and with the exception of two, they were all very helpful and accommodating. With many I hadn't purchased the CD (an error which I won't make in the future) and even with the key, my download rights were actually expired. They might not be so kindly the second time around. I'm not happy with the problems I'm having and had I gotten advice like this before calling Dell I would have tackled it with the idea that I couldn't hurt things much, but at this point I feel like I've just got to find some other way than another reinstall. I hope this doesn't make me sound ungrateful, because I'm not. Sophy

I just wanted to get back to both of you right away (Idontwantspam and joverby) to let you know I have read both of your replies. I am anxious to try some of the steps outlined previously and tonight for this ownership deal, but I'm waiting until I get my backup device. Before I start messing around in things I want to be able to back up everything I've spent hours and hours getting back after this recent crash and reinstall. I talked with iomega and they helped me choose some kind of external device to back everything up on. I purchased it a couple of nights ago and it's on its way. On the CD issue. My friend has the same computer I do. I sent the CD with the pics on it home with her and her computer will read it. So you are wondering what's the problem then -- Right? Well, she's pretty green, just like me. Her computer was able to read the CD and if she would just have reburned the pics to a new CD for me maybe I wouldn't be writing this right now. However, she decided to start a slide show and take a look at them and started getting all kinds of signs about drivers and everything, got scared, took the CD out of her computer and said, NO WAY am I messing with this anymore! Those pictures were copied to the CD from my Kodak EasyShare program. She does not have that software and I'm sure that's why she was getting the error messages on drivers ... but be that as it may she now will not put that CD back in her computer and copy it for me because she doesn't want to end up going through what I have with this crash and reinstall. I sure can't understand why her computer will read it and mine won't. It makes me wonder if everything got installed. When the Dell technician was leading me through the reinstall and we got to a window where it looked like we should set up an account -- it said OWNER -- I asked him about that and he said no, just to click okay. I just happened to remember that and thought that for you guys who know something about how things work it might shed some light. I'll get back to you and will check to see if you have anything new for me. Thanks again!! And thanks for the welcome too! Sophy

I gotta' tell ya' all that I feel about as dumb as a post right now but am hoping I'll eventually learn something. To submix8c -- yes, it's too late for a repair install now. But thank you for taking the time to comment. The answers make me feel like there is some blue on the horizon. Ha! To Ponch -- I read the article, went into that security tab (visible only when starting in safe mode) and got stuck. What I meant by the quote you highlighted is that there were no files there at all. I'm not trying to take ownership of files created before the reinstall. These are new files I'm creating with data in them and then trying to backup, or backing up data from a program like RoboForm so that if this happens again I haven't lost everything. As to the accounts, before I had to do this reinstall all I ever had was an administrator's account and I never had any problem. I tried setting up a guest account once and it seems I was always doing something that required administrator's rights so I deleted it and just went back to my administrator account. To joverby -- I didn't take any actions within that security section at all other than to look around because I had no idea what I was doing and was scared to. I am going to try starting in safe mode again and following through with the various steps you outlined. You said "did you check the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects?" As I said, I didn't check anything, but if I go back and try this do you mean I am supposed to check this box or I'm not supposed to? On the CD thing, I saved a file to my hard drive, unchecked the read only box and then copied it to the CD and that didn't make any difference. Now, as long as we are on the subject, why will my computer now NOT read some CDs that I had copied data to on this same computer with the same operating system before this reinstallation? Initially I had 6 CDs with data on them and it wouldn't read a single one of them. I just kept trying and for some reason it read 4 of them but will not read these last two. The one I am most concerned about is a CD with probably around 300 family photos on it that were copied to the CD from my Kodak EasyShare program. I have reinsalled EasyShare and all that but it will not read the CD. Is there any kind of a program one can purchase to read this CD? I really appreciate these responses and the help and I'll wait to hear from any or all of you. Thanks! Sophy

First I need anyone who reads this to know that I am a novice. I just experienced a crash and with the help of a Dell technician had to reinstall Windows XP Home w/SP2. Dell sent me this disk and then led me through the reinstall. Now I'm getting various signs stating such things as "Access denied, you do not have rights to do this" -- or "You aren't authorized to do this. Check with the administrator." I have only one account set up and it is an administrator's account. My name and picture appear on my start menu but do not appear on the Welcome screen when the computer boots, which the help files say it should. I have searched and read until I'm dizzy from it. I either can't find an answer or it was there and I didn't understand it. I started my computer in safe mode so that I could click on a file and access the Security tab in following Microsoft KB article instructions to "take control of my computer." For example's sake the name of my computer is SAM-EC839. When starting in safe mode and getting to the place where you have to select an account I was given two options. One was Administrators and the other was SAM. But SAM is supposed to be the administrator's account. The first time starting in safe mode I clicked on Administrators and I didn't even have access to any of my files with that so I restarted in safe mode again and selected SAM which did give me access to my files. When I click on a file and go to the security tab there are three entries: Administrators (SAM-EC839\Administrators) SAM (SAM-EC839\Owner) SYSTEM With each one I highlight, "Allow" is checked for everythng except "Special Permissions." It also shows Full Control for all three of these listed accounts. But, are there supposed to be three? Tonight I was trying to copy my Outlook Express Address Book to a CD-RW and was told I didn't have permission to copy this file and I should check with the administrator!!! Also, after copying a file to a CD-RW and then later opening that file I get a sign that tells me this is a read only file and that if I want to make any changes to it I have to save it with a new name, but when I try to do that I'm told I don't have permission. Is there a way to copy them so they aren't "read only"? I don't know what all information is needed. I have a Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows XP Home w/SP2, use IE 7. I have a 60 GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM. I've tried to explain things as clearly as I can. This is causing me problems and I can't get any more free help from Dell or Microsoft as my system is 3 years old. I am hoping someone out there has the courage to tackle this. Thanks, Sophy