Solved Format and re-install - now I can't access my mp3's

[GregH]

Hi All,

I have 2 hard disks. One (C has the OS (Win 7-64 Pro) and the other (E has all my data - images, music, docs etc.

After formatting and re-installing Win 7 on C: due to software related crashes, I now find that I am unable to play music files on the Windows Media Player. I firstly get security message that I do not have permission to access the folder, then on clicking OK. I then get directed to the Security Tab and select the PC name. I can then see the files in the folder but still cannot play them - Win Media Player gives the following message:

Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct.

How can I regain permission on these files which I am guessing is the problem. I am the admin (only registered user) on this PC!

 

[Abhishek Ghosh]

How have two hard disk partitions or physically two hard disks?

Anyway: click start > type regedit >hit enter> Right click on the HKEY current user > select permission > tick all the permission boxes.

Click advanced > select all keys and subkeys too.

Do the same for HKEY local machine too.

Reboot. It should work.

 

[GregH]

Thanks Abhishek,

They are two physical drives. To be sure I did not format the wrong one, I actually disconnected it's cables. Only reconnected after the installation was complete.

Will report back after the reboot...

 

[GregH]

No, this did not work. Same security messages. Any other idea's. Surely I would not have to delete this folder and rebuild it by copying all my CD's again? I use my PC as something of a Media Center, like to have MP3 copies of all my CD's. I can access all my images etc fine, just the music files are a problem.

 

[noobvious]

No, this did not work. Same security messages. Any other idea's. Surely I would not have to delete this folder and rebuild it by copying all my CD's again? I use my PC as something of a Media Center, like to have MP3 copies of all my CD's. I can access all my images etc fine, just the music files are a problem.

Have you looked into the "take ownership" process at all? That might be an answer....do you see it when you right-click on those files?

 

[GregH]

No - no option comes up for "Take Ownership" on right click - either the folder or the files inside...

Under Advance Settings I can get a option to do assign ownership but I get this as the Current Owner: Unable to display Current Owner.

 

[Abhishek Ghosh]

like to have MP3 copies of all my CD's. I can access all my images etc fine, just the music files are a problem.

That will work. Its a great alternative. Probably you have kept the box checked saying "protect my copyright" (or equivalent) while ripping to MP3/WMA. Thats you are getting it. It added an special hash to the ripped files so that no one can play/copy it other than that system owner.



@Noob: That will not work for non system files.

 

[noobvious]

like to have MP3 copies of all my CD's. I can access all my images etc fine, just the music files are a problem.

That will work. Its a great alternative. Probably you have kept the box saying "protect my copyright" (or equivalent) while ripping to MP3/WMA. Thats you are getting it. It added an special hash to the ripped files so that no one can play/copy it other than that system owner.



@Noob: That will not work for non system files.

OK then, in that case I have no ideas here.

 

[GregH]

Looks like I have to reload everything then? That really makes my day ! It is not just re-ripping the disks - I rename all the tracks to suit my preference and have a single standard! That will take weeks.

 

[gregrocker]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

 

[GregH]

Thanks gregrocker! I found a workaround now also... What I did was to open each folder and select all the MP files as a group and right click and select Share With - Homegroup (read/write). Now I can play the files and Win Media Player has imported them into the Media Player Library too.

Should I still do the Take Ownership thing as per your link then, or will this be OK?

 

[gregrocker]

Hi Greg -

You should not have to access files on the same computer by the same User by sharing them with Homegroup.

I'd take ownership of the folders starting with E itself, then if necessary the folder group or individual files. Use the shortcut placed on rightclick context menu to save time.

You should be able to Select All or highlight them in groups with the mouse to Take Ownership as a group if that's necessary.

 

[GregH]

OK, I have installed the right click Take Ownership menu. Seems to do the trick. Now I have gone back and changed the share option ion each folder (album) to Dont Share and I have a little padlock icon on each folder. Seems to be working fine though and Media Player is playing the MP3's. I never had the lock icon on the folders before though - it this an issue I need to be concerned about or can I ignore it?

 

[brady]

Add the "Everyone" group with full control to the disk that hosts the .mp3

 

[gregrocker]

The lock simply means they are not shared with homegroup. If you don't have a Homegroup then it's not a concern.

 

[GregH]

Great - thanks guys - appreciate the help!

Cheers for now

 

[brady]

so it works now? ^^

 

[GregH]

Yup - all seems OK - I can access all MP3's and Windows Media Player can import them into the database OK too. At least I did not need to copy everything again - that would have been FUN...

I still have the padlock folder on all folders in my music main folder but I don't care too much about that as long as I can have full access. The PC is not networked to others.

 

[Ghis1964]

I've always had this problem since owning ext HDD.

To be safe (and not knowing better still), whenever I do a re-install or even a system-restore, I'd always disconnect them from the machine, even the second internal HHD.
In my stumbling around with this, I found out that all my previous "full ownership and full-admin-user permissions" had remained in every single files. No torrents could ever finish writing (I always have some new "linux" downloading/seeding), otherwise, I would have never known.
Taking ownership back did not work until I had booted from a liveCD (UBCD for windows, Ubuntu liveCD, openSUSE live, or any) With this kind of boot, I can see every hidden folder. Useless trash bin; I delete that. Useless recovery folder; I delete that too. All I keep is MY FILES in those HDDs.
After this clean-up, I re-boot in SAFE MODE. I go down in system32 folder and look for cmd.exe (NO SHORT-CUT for me I then enter this command and wait for cmd to give me back ownership of those few 3TBs (an hour sometimes more) (you don't wanna know how long it takes to do this on a few 100GBs, files by files, in my first noobee ways, and I won't tell you either

The command;

takeown /f G:\,H:\,J:\,K:\ /r /d y && icacls G:\,H:\,J:\,K:\ /grant username:F /t

or one HDD at atime;

takeown /f G:\ /r /d y && icacls G:\ /grant username:F /t

It also helps dumping old-prefetch data when booting back, or simply let time and a few cold boot do it. (cold boot means shut-off, and then start-up. Not re-start or re-boot)

You can google the command to verify (yes google takes it to 100s of pages That's how I found it so....


Problem if be, is always related to the trash bin, but at least my files are free.

Also, I did the error of moving all my files from the older smaller HDD to the newer bigger once. That had moved also the trash bin. Never again. Folder option > show all system files. That way, I move only my files. The old trash bin and other stuff are reformated.

(moving files like this save me a defrag also, and almost better)

It's my PC. But most people have forgotten what that means: "Personal Computer", not a "Paralysis Chooser" or a "Persistent Chaperone" )

"Peace Cheers" )