sharing folders security feature

Greetings:

I am requesting assistance from any person who is familiar with the security
features of WinXP Pro. A few weeks ago, I activated the option to prevent
sharing of files in a specific directory. Once the option was activated, the
specific directories text turned green including the text and files within.
Just yesterday I had to reformat my HD. Once I reinstalled my OS on my
partitioned drive, I proceeded to access my files in that directory, however,
I am now unable to view, or open any files. When I try, the following
messages appear.

1. When attempting to open a text file, the following message appears:
" -The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
*check the file permissions for the document or drive.
*Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document."

2. When attemtping to open an image file, this message appears.
"-can't determine type"

I would like to know how to deactivate this feature. I should mention that
there was no indication that any certificate was in play. From my
understanding, to activate or deactivate this feature all one needs to do is
deselect an option box.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.


Thank you.

Derek S.

John
Mon Jun 04 16:45:57 CDT 2007

Derek S. wrote:
> Greetings:
>
> I am requesting assistance from any person who is familiar with the security
> features of WinXP Pro. A few weeks ago, I activated the option to prevent
> sharing of files in a specific directory. Once the option was activated, the
> specific directories text turned green including the text and files within.
> Just yesterday I had to reformat my HD. Once I reinstalled my OS on my
> partitioned drive, I proceeded to access my files in that directory, however,
> I am now unable to view, or open any files. When I try, the following
> messages appear.
>
> 1. When attempting to open a text file, the following message appears:
> " -The document name or path is not valid. Try these suggestions.
> *check the file permissions for the document or drive.
> *Use the File Open dialog box to locate the document."
>
> 2. When attemtping to open an image file, this message appears.
> "-can't determine type"
>
> I would like to know how to deactivate this feature. I should mention that
> there was no indication that any certificate was in play. From my
> understanding, to activate or deactivate this feature all one needs to do is
> deselect an option box.
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>
>
> Thank you.
>
> Derek S.
>

If the files appeared in green in explorer then you not only prevented
sharing of files, you encrypted the files which is an entirely different
thing although it does incidentally prevents others from looking at
them. Preventing sharing would have been far easier just turning off
simple file sharing and then changing the ownership of the files to be
protected.

But the bad thing is that when you re-installed your OS the
certificates/keys needed to get back to your files were probably damaged
or destroyed or at least have become unusable. There are experts in this
area who may be able to help you out but I know enough from reading here
that your situation is precarious and that backing up certificates (I
think that is the term I've seen used) is extremely important. Take a
look at the help for "recovering data".

I wish you the best of luck.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com