Reformatted - lost everything - help.

[wes225225]

what i always do is..

unplug.

pick up monitor.

throw out window

light it on fire.

ahhhhh....works everytime

[RobRR]

Yeah I forgot to add what Doug said, even if files are in the folder, if you dont own them, then you wont be able to see how many files are in there or the size of the folder either.

[delt]

After being annoyed too often by windows users with problems like this: i've fixed a few windows machines with a small linux partition that contains a snapshot tarball of their working "windows" "program files" "documents and settings" etc. directories with everything setup the way they want it. So if they fuck it up, they can un-fuck-it-up themselves just by typing "restore" at the login/password prompt in linux, that's all they have to type, and they don't need to call me anymore

The user "restore" 's login shell is just a small script that mounts the windows partition, moves all the old/broken directories out of the way and untar's the working ones back, then reboots the machine. Simple, and works like a charm. + they don't lose any documents/downloads/etc.

[shobet]

Trouble with that is I can't really see the average Windows Joe being able to install a dual boot system, yet alone write a shell scripts that will do the restoration you describe.

Interesting though, from what you describe it sounds like they'll only have a snapshot from when you configured the machine for them. Or have you also got something like a backup user that takes copies of these dirs and files?

I'd like to see your script if that's OK, doing family PC support drives me nuts as well. It's the "you fixed it 3 years ago and now it's fucked" that makes me want to rearrange their faces.

[zeegler]

Well, I'm really confused now. I am definitely logged in as an administrator, yet when I check the properties of a file, there is no security tab there. How can I change the ownership of a file when there is no security tab? This is fucking ridiculous. As administrator of the computer, shouldn't I be able to do ANYTHING I want? I can't even delete McAfee antivirus off the stupid system. ACCESS DENIED?!?!? WTF? I'm going to fucking smash something here.

[RobRR]

Ok Zeeg heres what you do. Go into "My Computer". Click on the Tools Menu Bar, then go to Folder Options. Click the View tab, then scroll down to the bottom and youll see "Use Simple File Sharing". Uncheck that box, and click OK. Close out My Computer, and reopen it.

Now, right click/properties on the DRIVE you want to take ownership of. Youll now see the secruty tab. Highlight YOUR administator account, and check all the boxes below under the "Allow" column. Then click ok, this may take a while. If it asks to include all sub folders and files, accept that and keep going. As I said, this may take a while as its going to be setting new permissions for every file on the drive you selected.

[Freehill]

Edit: Well RobRR got his answer in before me, so this post was redundant.

[zeegler]

Hey thanks Rob. That really helped me out. I still can't delete McAfee, but at least I can access my own damn folders.

[RobRR]

[shobet]

So you now have all your porn links back!

[DrDoug]

Cool! Simple file sharing is a pain in the ass. That is the first thing I turn off on an install.

So you now have all your free porn links back!

Fixed...

[zeegler]

So you now have all your porn links back!

TheHun is all I ever needed.

[delt]

Trouble with that is I can't really see the average Windows Joe being able to install a dual boot system, yet alone write a shell scripts that will do the restoration you describe.

Yeah, that's why they need me to do it, but they only need me to do it once and afterwards they're all set to fix the windows screwups themselves.

Interesting though, from what you describe it sounds like they'll only have a snapshot from when you configured the machine for them. Or have you also got something like a backup user that takes copies of these dirs and files?

Of course if they install software afterwards and then get a virus or spyware etc. the new stuff they installed isn't in the snapshot, so it doesn't get restored. Still, it's a -lot- faster to get the machine back into a useable state with all the "essential" stuff, device drivers, network config, etcetc. for each user (usually 5-10 minutes of waiting) than have to re-install all that shit manually (5-10 hours of endless fucking around, chasing after CD's & whatnot)

The script really isn't that complicated, it's usually just something like:

#!/bin/sh
mount /dev/whatever /windows && cd /windows
oldstuffdir="ERASE-ME-`date`"
mkdir "$oldstuffdir"
mv windows "program files" "documents and settings" "$oldstuffdir"
tar -xzvf /wherever/is/the/snapshot.tar.gz && {
echo "some message saying operation complete"
echo "and that the computer will reboot"
shutdown -r now
} || echo "error message saying something fukked up"


with extra checks for disk space, read/write permissions, etcetc... but that's the basic idea.

[delt]

Oh, and i usually change the user's shell directories (my pictures, my music, my documents, ....) to somewhere outside of "documents and settings" so those don't get bumped, but are kept at the same place, along with any work/documents/download they may have

/* edit */

Anyway, the user can't really go wrong since i usually charge $0.00 (and/or a beer) to get the job done

[Freyr]

NTFS file system?

If so, try copying that folder to another OS (knoppix is good for this, but vista was what we learned this on)... apparently, NTFS file structures are secure, as long as you don't copy the folder, thus changing the owner of it. *shrugs*