Safe Mode fails to start

[nanacake]

I thought if anywhere this place would be able to help me out. And this section seems appropriate for this.

So my computer is running Windows XP Home Edition.
There is several folders in the Shared Documents that are set permissions to Read Only and Hidden.
It is also thought that the owner is set to a user that has since been deleted. Even on administrative login name the files can not be changed or deleted- permissions (Error Access is Denied) are stuck.

So the security tab to change ACLs ownership can only be accessed in safe mode for XP Home. But upon restarting F8 to safe mode, and selecting safe mode the screen turns black and shows a list of .sys files and then locks up. It is required that I manually turn the computer off now. SO I attempted to use safe mode + boot, and other safe mode option with networking. All failed with the same .sys files listed.

I am thinking it is because the graphics card was removed due to the motherboard not being able to read VGA anymore. So where should I start to adjust settings so Safe Mode could load again?

[Kazzandra]

If no one else wants to tell you this, then I will: you're probably screwed. If you have a boot CD or recovery partition, perhaps you can restore a working version of Windows from it. If this was a store-bought box, you should have one on hand somewhere. It seems to me recovering files in this manner would be the smartest thing to do, because this computer sounds very screwed up.

How did a user get partially deleted?  Why are you missing core Windows files? What do you mean by the motherboard not being able to read the 'VGA?' The VGA connector is a port that connects to your monitor. If you have a monitor attached, it is working. Do you mean AGP? If so, there could be a multitude of software-related reasons that happened, especially with the other problems you are having.

Find that boot CD, pronto. That's my advice.

[jolrei]

If this is your computer, why are you not the owner and the administrator account?  If this is due to "factory" settings, they are screwed up.  You can try a lot of "calisthenics" to try to save stuff, but the best thing to do, in my view, would be to wipe it, reformat and rebuild.  Save your neighbourhoods and back up your data before you do this.

I think that's the only way you're going to end up with a stable, workable system.  If you don't have XP disks, torrent versions are available.

[nanacake]

How did a user get partially deleted?

The user who created the files was someone who once lived in this house, but since deleted their user account. The computer is used by all of the family with 4 accounts as of now.

What do you mean by the motherboard not being able to read the 'VGA?'

Sorry if I maybe said this wrong. I will try to explain. A few months ago, the computer had a working graphics card installed for games. One day the screen went bad. We thought maybe the card had problem and bought a replacement. This exact same card but new, also did not work. We sent it to a repair person, and he stated to us that the mother board has a problem it can not read any cards at all and will have to be replaced. For now, we have monitor plugged into "basic" vga port (is this right name or maybe it is AGP port like you say). At the moment, the motherboard would cost to replace same as a new computer. So a new computer will probably be bought when funds are available. I was hoping to save this computer though for just basic use.

If this is your computer, why are you not the owner and the administrator account?

This account I am using is Administrator, but the file even then does not want to listen to changes. I believe because somehow the file is still owned by the user account deleted, it has become confused. But without safe mode I can not fix this. I was afraid I must do what you say with boot disc, and have been searching for it. A 500gb external drive was just ordered from Amazon, so hopefully it will arrive within a week to backup important data. I just hope the permissions will allow copying. On some of the files they may not even be copyable which is sad... because they are family photos The files in the share folder, are upsetting to family members and they wanted them removed. But I realize the entire computer is having major problem with permissions settings. I believe the deleted user did this problem, as well as the broken motherboard and perhaps spyware. Overall it is at the end    Thank you for the responses. Maybe I will find Professional version XP next time, so this can not happen again.

[morriganrant]

If this is your computer, why are you not the owner and the administrator account?

This account I am using is Administrator, but the file even then does not want to listen to changes.

I had an issue like this, where a folder was locked away after a system restore and I was denied access. Ridiculous. I have  admin power on this machine, what do you mean I can't get in there? Safe mode was the only option ...where apparently, there is an Uber Admin account that is normally hidden. This still baffles me as to why my admin account could not do the job.

[Simsample]

On XP Home, you cannot take ownership of a folder unless you are in safemode. On XP Pro you can do this on an admin account at any time. I guess you must have had XP Home, too. It's not an 'Uber Admin' account, it's just that certain functions aren't available on XP Home under normal circumstances.

[morriganrant]

On XP Home, you cannot take ownership of a folder unless you are in safemode. On XP Pro you can do this on an admin account at any time. I guess you must have had XP Home, too. It's not an 'Uber Admin' account, it's just that certain functions aren't available on XP Home under normal circumstances.

No I do not have that MS home. I had to fix a friend of mines computer with that OS and was not impressed to say the least. I have Media center edition.


Edit: to fix stupid error.

[witch]

If you have a logon page showing, you can Ctrl Alt Del twice and bring up a logon box where you can logon as Administrator. Well, if you know the password. I have XP Professional and I'm not at all sure the Home Edition has that facility, don't see why not though.

You should be able to right click on a folder and go to Permissions and reset those.

I have Media center addition.

Edition?

It might still work, I dunno.

[morriganrant]

If you have a logon page showing, you can Ctrl Alt Del twice and bring up a logon box where you can logon as Administrator. Well, if you know the password. I have XP Professional and I'm not at all sure the Home Edition has that facility, don't see why not though.

You should be able to right click on a folder and go to Permissions and reset those.

Home edition requires you to be in safe mode before allowing you to be uber Admin. Stupid if you ask me.

I have Media center addition.

Edition?

It might still work, I dunno.

I just found out that I should be able to do a registry tweak and have it visible always. I believe that I will try that.
I had half assed known about the other admin account, but that was the first time that I had ever needed to use the thing. Plus the first time in a long time that I had needed safemode at all. Thus my confusion on the whole matter.

[jolrei]

This sounds ridiculously stupid.  If it was me, I would now be totally fed up with it.  I would arrr a copy of XP Pro and rebuild the system anyway.  Aten't no flippin OS gonna tell me I'm not worthy to change the system.

[Simsample]

I just found out that I should be able to do a registry tweak and have it visible always. I believe that I will try that.

Yes, Media center edition is similar to XP home in that the Security tab is hidden. There are a few sites with registry files to download to 'tweak' this- I like the way they tell you to backup the registry before doing this. If you mess up the registry badly I don't think you'd be able to log on to restore a backup! Witch, you can't ctrl-alt-del to access hidden accounts in XP Home- at least, not unless you alter the registry. This is the same in Vista Home versions- Vista Home Basic is so crippled that it makes XP look shiny. I would definitely not want to use the home versions of either- it is quite difficult just to implement what I would consider essential security.