HELP!! I am stuck on the windows "login to windows" screen...

[dimarrco]

I think that I may have used a corrupted exe file in my laptop and now I am unable to get past the log-in screen using any of my past logins. just hitting enter  as I did before this problem, will not work. I have alot of files that I do not have copies of that I can not loose, if I were to reload windows xp pro again. I can get to the drive by hooking it up to another computer, but I cannot get into any files under "user". I can go into "all users" and one other user shown in the list. But when I try to go into "user" file, it says that I do not have permission to access this file. That is the mode I was in for all of my work to be saved in. It is the same situation in safe mode when I boot in safe mode. Can anyone help or suggest what to do? Dimarrco   

[patio]

Try This...

[dimarrco]

Thank you so much!!!!
You just made my day. This worked perfectly. Dimarrco

[dimarrco]

 Patio, can I do this with the entire drive? Dimarrco

[patio]

I believe you need to do it a folder at a time...but you could try it on C: and see what happens.

[planetoidalee]

I re-installed xp pro a little while ago, after doing this I was denied access to slave E:. This was unfortunate as I had put all my music, docs...etc... on this drive. Got round it by taking ownership of the whole drive (slave E:) so the answer to your question dimarrco is yes!

[dimarrco]

I want to thank you all for your help. It is a done deal. I have access now and can retreieve the files. Dimarrco

[dimarrco]

 I have another question to this... now after being able to get into the hd and files as needed, can I put the drive back into the laptop and boot up into the password screen as before and be able to not have to put a password in and work from the laptop? or do I have to save info as I had planned onto another disk? Dimarrco

[patio]

No.
File permissions have nothing to do with the OS password permissions...i'm afraid if you re-install the drive you will have the same scenario.
How did you lose the password ? ?

You could try booting into safemode and setting a new password...

[dimarrco]

Safe mode won't let me get past the screen either. I think that I may have used a corrupted exe file in my laptop and now I am unable to get past the log-in screen using any of my past logins. just hitting enter  as I did before this problem, will not work. I will retrieve the files I need and reformat the drive. Dimarrco

[patio]

I don't see how any corrupt .exe would compromise the login process but a format and clean install is probably the way to go...
You may also want to start considering a good solid backup strategy at this point as you got lucky this time.