How to take ownership, control, and have access to a file or folder(s) from an old hard drive

Plugging the old hard drive to the USB port of your computer to browse files

After installing the old laptop hard drive to the 2.5 inch HDD SATA to USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure, it is now time to plug it into the USB port of your computer (desktop or laptop) in order to test that the data, music, video, media, and other essential files are intact and in good condition.

If you used a Plug n Play Hard Drive Enclosure and you are plugging it into a computer with Windows XP or higher, you don't have to do anything (no driver installation or restarting). After plugging in your Hard Drive that is now inserted into the Hard Drive Enclosure, your computer should display a message "Found new hardware" in the task bar.

Next, is to click 

Start --> My Computer

and it should show you a new drive with a new drive letter. Explore and browse the files and folders and in case you can not access or even view these files, and a message saying

"Access is denied",

you need to get Permissions in Administrator level. To do this, do the following step by step procedure (based on Windows XP Home edition operating system):

1. Restart your computer in Safe Mode.

2. Press repeatedly F8 during the restart and select Safe Mode using the arrow key.

3. Log on as an Administrator.

4. A message will say "Windows is running in safe mode.", "To proceed to work in safe mode, click Yes."

5. Browse to the folder that you want to have access to.

6. Right-click the folder or folders that you want to have access to, have control, and take ownership.

7. Click Properties.

8. Click the Security tab.

9. Click Advanced.

10. Click the Owner tab.

11. In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group.

12. Click OK.

The Permissions for Administrators will enable you to either Allow or Deny the following privileges:
- Full Control
- Modify
- Read and Execute
- List folder contents
- Read
- Write
- Special Permissions


13. Click the Start button.

14. Restart your computer in Normal Mode.


Adding a new user account and giving access Permissions

If you want to add a certain user account and give a certain access level to a user (for example "guest"), follow these steps:

1. Click Add.

2. In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user (in this case, type "guest")

3. Click OK.

4. In the Group or user names list, click the "guest" account.

5. Click to select the check boxes of the Permissions that you want to assign to "guest" user.
- Full Control
- Modify
- Read and Execute
- List folder contents
- Read
- Write
- Special Permissions

6. After you are finished assigning user Permissions for "guest", click OK.

7. Restart your computer in Normal Mode.


Changing the Permissions for access level for an existing user account

In order to change the permissions on a file or folder or folders for an existing user account, follow these steps:

1. In the Group or user names list, click the Name of the user account.

2. Click to select the check boxes of the Permissions that you want to assign to the user.
- Full Control
- Modify
- Read and Execute
- List folder contents
- Read
- Write
- Special Permissions

3. After you are finished assigning user Permissions for the selected user, click OK.

4. Restart your computer in Normal Mode.