What software are you using to copy the files to drive 'D:\' ?

Pardon my ignorance, but "What software am I using to copy.."? I'm not sure I understand the question.

I also should have mentioned, I get the same message when I try to save a Word document to my A drive. I still have some old Word documents on 3 1/2' floppies.

In the past, if I wanted to save something to either drive, I just selected A: or D: and didn't have a problem. Now I do.

Another thing I should have mentioned: I also get the same message if I try to open any of the Word documents I have saved on A: or D:

"You don't have access to the folder........../

are you sure you are in the administrator account? somehow your accounts could have got changed. Check in Start control panel user accounts to see how many accounts are showing and see if you see anything that looks new or unusual indicating that someone could have gained control of your pc and set up a new admin account.
When you boot up the pc do you have it set up so you have to type in your password and are you signing into the admin account with that password?

Now maybe I'm getting somewhere. I've never looked at User Accounts before. Here's what I found: There are two accounts

Kevin - Computer admin.

and

Guest - Guest account is off

Now what? Thanks for your help.

and no, I don't sign in with my password. I haven't tried the admin account yet.

Kevin

ok it always comes with one guest account and it is best to keep it off unless someone is using it in your household.

If you are using the Kevin account then you are using the Admin account.
I would try rebooting a couple times and see if maybe it resets your settings. Sometimes those gremlins in there scramble things up.

If that does not work you might try going to your Kevin ADmin account and setting up a password for that account and for goodness sakes write it down correctly and save it!!! Then when you start up your pc it will ask which account you want to use, you would select the Kevin admin one and then enter your password into the password line.
If you already have it set up with a password then use that password of course.

but try the rebooting a few times and before you do the reboot try turning it off completely, unplug it, let it set for 10 mins then plug in and do your reboot, sometimes doing that also helps to reset it.

Did both suggestions and still can't access the files or save anything.

Something else?

Kevin

when is the last time you ran a good antispyware scan? if you do not have superantispyware get it install, update, run full scan let it clean anything it finds, the blue one is the free version.

if that does not fix it then try this.

Bill Castner has created a little program that fixes some of the changes that these infections cause you can look at that too.

Download to your Desktop FixPolicies.exe, a self-extracting ZIP archive from here:
http://downloads.malwareremoval.com/Bil ... licies.exe
* Double-click FixPolicies.exe.
* Click the "Install" button on the bottom toolbar of the box that will open.
* The program will create a new Folder called FixPolicies.
* Double-click to Open the new Folder, and then double-click the file within: Fix_Policies.cmd.
* A black box will briefly appear and then close. This will enable your Control Panel and stop the Administrative warnings, at least until the malware infection resets the registry policy keys again. You can run this as many times as you like. A permanent fix requires removing the infection.

http://downloads.malwareremoval.com/Bil ... licies.exe

SUPERAntiSpyware

Also see this link if other things do not work.

Here is a link that might be useful: Take ownership of a file or folder in xp

raven - tried that, but it didn't change anything. I've been using spybot and spywarebaster. I run weekly and update at least once a week. It's been ages since I've found any problems.

zep - going to try your suggestion next.

OK, I'm still having problems. According to that article, the first step is to put the 'puter in SAFE MODE. I did some searching on that topic and found the following:

Click Start, click Shut Down and then in the drop-down list click Shut Down.
Problem already. If I click Start, there is no option to Shut Down and certainly no drop-down list. I can either Log Off or Turn Off. What am I missing?

To enter safe mode do the following:

Windows XP

Using the F8 Method

Restart your computer.
When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with a Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
Then press enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.
Do whatever tasks you require and when you are done reboot to boot back into normal mode.

When you click 'Start' to the right of 'Log Off' you should see 'Turn off the computer'. Click that and in the dialog box that opens up click 'Restart' and follow zep516's instructions.

Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the help. I may not get to this until this evening or tomorrow, but I'll certainly let you know how it's going.

K

Thanks for getting back to us and keeping us updated you have an odd problem there not so sure my solution will work but as we work and try things we start to gain other knowledge of the workings of a pc so all is not lost..

OK, the F8 method just didn't work for me, but I found this:

Go to Start - Run and type or paste MSCONFIG then press enter
Click on the the Boot.ini tab
Click the box for /SAFEBOOT to select it
Minimal should be selected, if not select it
Click Apply then OK

That worked like a charm.

Still having problems with the instructions on taking ownership of a file.

It says: Right click the folder that you want to take ownership of and then click Properties.

Since the folders I want to take ownership of are actually Drive A and D, I went to My Computer and clicked on A: to start. Clicked on Properties as stated.

Now it says: Click the Security tab and then click OK on the Security message if one appears.

Where's the security tab? Can't see anything like that. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong.

On my computer on the right click drop down menu I see 'Sharing and Security'. I think that is what you want to click on.

You don't get that in Safe Mode. Here's the list you get:
open
diskpie view
explore
search
copy
scan
format
cut
copy
shortcut
rename
properties

If I click Properties, I get
General, Hardware, Tools

If I'm not in Safe Mode and do what you're suggesting with Sharing and Security, this is the message I get:
To protect the computer from unauthorized access sharing the root of a drive is not recommended. If you understand the risk but still want to share the root, click here.

Do I want to click there?

I think I have to back up here a couple of posts, so I'm going to repost what I posted above.

(Remember when I'm doing this, I'm in Safe Mode.)

It says: Right click the folder that you want to take ownership of and then click Properties.

Since the folders I want to take ownership of are actually Drive A and D, I went to My Computer and clicked on A: to start. Clicked on Properties as stated.

Now it says: Click the Security tab and then click OK on the Security message if one appears.

Where's the security tab? Can't see anything like that.

The security tab thing is what's messing me up. I have no idea what it's suppose to look like since nothing is labeled SECURITY TAB. There is an floppy-type icon and to the right of that is a rectangular box with nothing in it. I can put the cursor in that box, but I can't type anything.

"Since the folders I want to take ownership of are actually Drive A and D, I went to My Computer and clicked on A: to start. Clicked on Properties as stated."

Your right I think this is more for a folder issue as in "Folder" not A or D drive.

I do not have an answer but will run it by some of my associates.

The only other thing I can think of is a system restore to a point before the problem occurred, and remember you can always un-do a restore point if unhappy with the results.

Click Start>in the (programs list) click accessories> then system tools> then System restore and follow through.

It's worth a shot and as you said you were able to do this excercise before.

zep

I would really appreciate if you could ask your associates first. I also didn't mention that I've been having this problem for more months than I can recall. I'm only dealing with it now. I wouldn't even know how far back I'd have to go for a restore point.

Kevin

are you having any problems at all accessing any folder or files on your main C drive? on the actual file it self that you are wanting to copy do you get any messages on it? Can you try saving that file to just another folder and see what happens.

here are some other options I have found on another forum.
HOW TO: Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.c om/?kbid=3 08421
HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.c om/default .aspx?scid =kb;en- us; 308418
Note: If you cannot see the Security tab, then you will have to goto Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View and untick Simple File Sharing, apply and now you should get that tab in XP PRO.
For XP Home edition, you will have to boot into safemode and have to login as Administrator to access the Security tab, coz in xp home this tab cannot be visible to standard users !!

Assuming you have administrator access to the machine do:

- Select D: and open Properties.
- Go to the Security Tab and select Advanced.
- Select the Owner Tab.
- In the box titled "Change Owner To" select Administrators.
- Tick the "Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects Box" then select Apply.
- Once it's complete press OK.
- You should now be back at the Security Tab.
- Add Administrators and SYSTEM to the box.
- Give Administrators and SYSTEM Full Control.
- Add any other required User Accounts or the Everyone Group and assign the permissions.
- Select Advanced (again)
- Tick the box "Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown..."
- Press Apply
- Press OK

if you canÂt access the security tab, please do the following:
Go to Control Panel Â> Folder Options Â> View.
In Advanced Settings, Uncheck "Use simple file sharing" (last option). This will activate your security tab.

Try going here and following his directions along with that bit above about the security tab.
Folder Is Not Accessible - Access Denied

I don't have any problems with C drive. I just saved a document in one folder to another without problems.

The first link to instructions is the one I've been using all day today.

The second link didn't work. Something about that article not being available.

I am using XP Home Edition and when I went into Safe Mode I did log on as Admin. but can't find the security tab.

I really appreciate all the other info you provided, but once again I think I'm going to have to come back to this later. Right now my mind is very soft tofu since I spent about 5 hours on this today.

I'm going to watch a movie. A couple of Netflix ones came today. Will post updates again when I have the energy to pursue this.

Thanks again. Once the problem is fixed, it's rhubarb pie for all. You do have to come over to my house for that though.

K

Since this is affecting the entire drive, I almost wonder if the disk had a problem and it got put in read only mode as a result.

Try going into Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management.

One of the options along the left nav is storage. Under that is Disk Management. Right Click the drive and choose properties. On the tools tab, select Check Now (in the section for check for errors). I think it will tell you it has to reboot to do this. Reboot and let it go through the entire check.

bg - I followed your instructions, but ran into a problem at:
"On the tools tab, select Check Now"
I don't see that option anywhere. Should I have been in safe mode?

Nevertheless - I think I may have figured something out. Let's see if I can explain this.
I only have one floppy with Word documents on it. Luckily I have copies on my C drive. I went back to the beginning and started over. First I went into Word, inserted that floppy and tried to access the documents I know I have saved there. Got the Access Denied message as stated in my original post. Next I went into My Computer with that disk still in the drive, clicked on A: and got a message that the disk was not formatted. What? It was at one point since I have lots of documents saved on it. I also label my floppies, so I know I didn't have the wrong one.

Went back into Word, inserted a different floppy, opened a document on my C drive and tried saving it to the new floppy. IT WORKED!! I could save it and then I could open it. Didn't get the Access Denied message at all.

So I guess it was a floppy disk problem. I still don't know why I got that: You do not have access to the folder 'A:\'. See you system administrator for access to this folder. message if the disk was bad.

I'm not in safe mode when I do this, so you shouldn't need to be.

So you right clicked the drive and selected properties, then went to the tools tab, but you don't see the button that says check now?

There should be three sections on the tools tab: Error Checking, Defragmentation and Backup. The Check now button is to the right in the Error checking section.

Nope. Right clicked the drive, selected properties and then I see:

General Properties
DVD Region
Volumes
Driver

No error checking, no defrag, no backup anywhere.

So this is a DVD or CD we're talking about? That's probably why you can't save to it. Typically, you can't write to a CD or DVD as if it were a regular drive. There's a way to do it if you've got a DVD RW or a CD RW, but I think you need to set it up for DLA (Drive Letter Access) first. I've been working on the assumption that D: is a hard drive, not a CD or DVD.

Make sure you have a CD or DVD RW in the drive, then prepare it for drive letter access. I don't know if that's something that I have due to the software that came with my drive or if it's standard, but if I right click a CD or DVD I can format it and check something that says Use with DLA.

It seems the issue is as much with Word as anything else. Can you read the contents of the A or D drive by using Windows Explorer? Can you copy other files to the floppy or CD?

OK, a bit of confusion here.

C drive is my hard drive.

Yes, I've been using a CD-RW for coping files to. I simply don't do much of that, but I do know how to do it. Like I said, I had a whole bunch of old Word and Excel files on both my hard drive and on a floppy and a few on a CD-RW. That's how this whole mess started. When I tried to access those files on one floppy and one CD-RW, I got that original "you do not have access..." message. I never thought that there was something wrong with THAT floppy and THAT CD-RW.
Now that I'm using a new floppy and a new CD-RW, everything is fine.

What are the odds that something could have happened to both the floppy and CD-RW I was using? The only thing I can think of is the fact I sometimes don't remember to take them out of their drives when I'm done using them. They could have sat there for days and days while the computer was shut off and restarted and all sorts of scans and whatever done while they were still in place.

It's a mystery to me, but I least I can now copy and save files to both.

"What are the odds that something could have happened to both the floppy and CD-RW I was using? "

From the sounds of things, 1:1. It's possible that it was a coincidence, but it's also possible that something happened like a surge or something that happened to affect both of those things.

Glad you were able to get it going.

3.5 inch Floppy disks have a "read only" hardware tab on the disk shuck. Make sure this has not gotten set by accident. The little slider covers the hole in the default position for read/write. Moving the slide to uncover the hole sets the disk to read only, a feature that can be used to prevent over-writing or deleting files.

Hey Kevin, you probably got some sphag in the drive...

Jane

Cute Jane, cute.

Are you telling me I shouldn't be doing that repotting on top of the 'puter?