Ask A Geek

Q: I bought a new PC and tried to add the hard drive from my old PC to the new PC. The install went ok and the drive shows up. I can see the files but I can’t access them. It says I do not have permission. The new PC is running Vista and the old is Windows XP. Is there anyway I can access the files?

A: When you move a hard drive from a computer running Windows XP to a computer running Windows Vista you will normally have to “take ownership” of the files. We suggest you read the tutorial for Taking Ownership of a file. The tutorial contains great directions and screenshots that will help you solve your problem.

Q: I have a Pavilion desktop a250n computer running Windows XP home. I installed a new motherboard because of a crash. All works well on the C main (master) drive apparently using Windows but I had another slave drive partitioned into two which used to show up in the “My computer” window from which I accessed these two separate drives (partitions) before the motherboard crash.

When I get to Disk Manager it recognizes that the whole slave disk exists but the only option I have is to re-partition the drive. I don’t want to do that, at least not until I recover the data I had on it before the crash. I don’t know how to access those two original partitions.

Q: I have a new laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. I tried to load a program as administrator to no avail as the computer says I’m not the administrator. Checked User accounts in Control and it says I’m the administrator. How come I am unable to install the software?

A: If the installer/program you’re trying to run was designed for previous versions of Windows, such as Windows XP, then Windows Vista needs to send an extra signal to the installer/program to force it to recognize you as an administrator. Sometimes you may also need to fool the installer/program into thinking that it’s actually running on a different version of Windows. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: I have a new laptop with vista home premium. As administrator I tried to load a programme to no avail as the computer says I’m not the administrator. Checked User accounts in Control which say I’m the administrator?

Q: I bought a new PC and tried to add the hard drive from my old PC to it. The install went ok and the drive shows up and I can see the files but I can’t access them. It says I do not have permission. New PC is Vista, old is XP. Is there anyway I can access the files?

Q: I am using Windows 2000 Pro on an Omnibook 6100 and was wanting to defrag my laptop. When I accessed defrag , I only see volume C: to defrag. Is this all that I am able to defrag? Someone told me I have to have administrators access. What does that entail?

Q: Windows Vista won’t let me access my external hard drive. It comes up with an error message saying access denied. I have made a registry key but this is only for files and folders. I have tried to change the permissions but for some reason this doesn’t work.

Q: I have a computer with Windows Vista and I have downloaded SpyBot S&D. I am the administrator on our home computer and after running SpyBot S&D it says it wont destroy because I am not the admin. What can I do now?

Q: My User Account will not download a game from the Net. It is in my Admin Account. Can I transfer it from Admin to User?