Can’t access files on a slave drive?

Recently this question came across my desk by a user who was fearing the worst about his do-it-yourself storage upgrade.

Background: The user had an older machine which contained two drives, one for his OS (Windows) and the other for his files (documents, pictures, etc..). He had a few directories in his file structure that contained personal documents and decided to modify permissions to only allow his username access. Because of his aging computer, he purchased a new machine to replace it.   

Can you see where I’m going with this…?

He un-boxed his new machine and because he had a separate drive for his files, he simply transferred that (slave) drive to the new machine. Unfortunately when he tried to access his personal directories on the file share, he was presented with an “Access Denied” message. Fearing the worst, and not having a backup of his files, he sent me an email outlining his dilemma and asked me for some help.

Solution: The user simply needs to take ownership of the files. Trying to “re-modify” the permissions to include a new username or to include “Everyone”, will not work. I directed him to a Microsoft knowledge base article on how to recover ownership of his files.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421 

Following these steps helped him recover ownership and ultimately allowed him access to his files again. I did scold him about not backing up his files though!