Lost access due to REinstallation?

Before i reinstalled it i set the user files as personal and therefore checked the option "Make this Folder Private ".
However after i reinstalled XP due to some technical problems now i get Access Denied when i tried accessing the old files.
What should i do?

 

 
 
From an administrative account, open My Computer, Tools, Folder Options, View, and uncheck the box concerning "Simple File Sharing ".

This will give you more options in your Properties of the folders and allow you to take ownership.

 

You don't specify XP-home or XP-pro and since I've never seen the Home version, can say exactly but here is what I think happened and how you would fix it on any full NT OS (NT4/2K/XP-pro) and probably similar with the home version.

When you marked those areas as private, XP took note of which account there were for. But not by username. By the accounts SID (security ID). If you delete the account and create another with exactly the same name, it will have a different SID so you probably wouldn't have access.

What you need to do now is with an account having administrative rights to the system, "take ownership" of the folder. Oddly enough you can often do this even when you cannot get into the folder. Once you are the owner, you have control and can get in.

XP-Pro just right-click the folder~properties~security and you can do it from there.

XP-Home is the same except that for some odd reason, you will only have the security tab if you are booted in safe mode. Go figure.