Access denied on my own documents and settings?

I have found a few virus' on my comp lately, have sorted them but i am still having problems accessing Owner documents and settings, Always says access denied. I have checked the rights on here and it says i have all access and that i am the administrator. I am overloaded with porn advertising in email. Im using xp home SP3 CAN ANYONE HELP?

 

There are many new viruses that change the folder properties on several important system fiolders to "Read Only". I posted a thread about it here. In some cases, I was able to change the 'Read Only' status using a command prompt and the attrib command, but other times the only way to fix the problem was to complete reload Windows clean... this means I had to back up the data and reformat the drive. Read this guide to get started removing the viruses.

Good luck!

 

Hey

Thanks for the speedy reply! I have already cleaned of viruses and malware using that thread already, but still cant gain access to the mentioned folder:confused

 

Did you read this thread about a similar problem I had with viruses permanently changing the attributes on some system folders? There's some tips in that thread (like trying the attrib command from the Safe Mode admin account) that might help. Other than that, you can take a look at this site for details on using the attrib command and others from a command prompt to try to fix the problem. When I had a problem similar to yours, I had to use instructions from a command line to change things back to normal.

 

All that just flew straight over my head:confused I dont know loads about computers. I could probably be guided thru tho?

 

Ok have done that. Nothing has happened. I am worried that i will lose all things i have on my pc. My pc has a floppy in it, can i back up pc to there?

 

This is crazy stuff!! when i did the step below.... it said file not found.

 

:-o rolleyes Sorry... I sometimes just start running w/o realizing that not everyone knows what I'm talking about... my bad.... have you right clicked on the folder that you're locked out of and looked at the properties? If it says "Read Only" then that is what the problem is. If it doesn't say "Read Only" then we have a whole different issue on hand. The problems I had were with the folders being "locked" at Read Only and 50% of the time I had to save the data and wipe/erase/format the drives and re-install Windows. This Read Only 'lock' is caused by malware; actually, it's caused by a particularly nasty form of malware known as a rootkit which is just like any other virus except that it is installed at the kernel level of the PC and it becomes part of the operating system, much like a driver does. This is why rootkits are so hard to remove is because most antivirus tools overlook rootkits thinking that they are part of Windows. Since you mentioned that you had been swamped with pornmail and the like, I am inclined to think that the problem is related to viruses and malware. Anyway- right click the folders and check the properties. If you're lucky, you may be able to use the checkbox to undo the Read Only setting if that's what the problem is.

Keep us posted!

:-D

[dlb]

 

Well what can i say... the folder unchecks then when i go back to the folder to open, it stops me and the folder has changed back to read only. Madness:confused

 

So are you blocked out of your "My Documents"? Is this Owner folder your user account/desktop?

Maybe try Taking Ownership of the folder? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

Owner documents and settings yes. Just searched this site for an anti- rootkit program, when i installed and tried to use, it told me that it would need to change the rgistry settings and that if i wanted to put them back after, i could use the advanced tab to restore it, however, when i scanned and got the log copied to paste here, it wouldnt allow me to use the internet... so off i went to use that program, go to advanced and restore the settings :-o it just said " can not use program more than once!!! But anyway it did say it had found some things but i had to reboot my pc and use cc cleaner to fix registry settings therefore losing my copied report!! The program i used was called Sanity check:-D:-D

 

I have just done the steps in the link above, it gave me ownership of that file but all the folders inside i cannot acces, perhaps i will need to do those steps on all the folders. I still need to try and get rid of the rootkit thing, or learn how to back up and reinstall windows

 

I hope the ownership change will get you into your documents. Did you do the below step_it should give you permissions on all subfolders if it ownership is the problem.

 

Yeah have done that, the read only tab is always checked still, when i try to apply it to all subfolders, it tells me error changing some access denied.