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I am trying to copy the complete user profile of an old XP pc to a new computer. I want to copy the entire profile as I have to get rid of the older PC quite soon, and would sort through the files at a later stage.

To do this, I setup a DeltaCopy server on my 2008 server, and placed DeltaCopy on the client.

I made sure DeltaCopy has write access to the folder on the server and everything.

I start the XP computer in safe mode with networking to log on as administrator, and then start the DeltaCopy client to copy the user profile. I also did this to ensure nothing in the profile would be in use.

Now, I have run into two problems.

The first is that the Administrator user does not seem to have access to a user profile. I had to grant it permission, but there were some folders that I didn't even have permission to edit.

I set the owner to be Administrator and set the permissions to apply to all child objects, yet it did not seem to help.

The second problem was on that the files that did copy, I also don't seem to have permission. Which is understandable as they contain information for the different accounts, but I can't seem to take ownership, as I don't even have permission to view the security information.

How can I resolve both of these issues and successfully transfer a complete user profile to another windows PC?

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  • Based on your description of the problem I suggest you do a thorough virus scan on that XP machine, or at least the files you'll be copying over. Apr 8, 2011 at 7:58

2 Answers 2

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Some folders can be set to not inherit permissions, but you should be able to take ownership them and fix the permissions on specific folders. Did you try claiming ownership on a parent folder and verify that "Replace owner on subcontainers and object" was checked? While permissions only inherit on folders marked to accept inheritance, replacing ownership on all subcontainers is suppose to apply recursively forever. You can also try assigning ownership to the Administrators group instead of Administrator.

Another issue, though rather unlikely, is whether user Administrator is a member of the Administrators group. It the Administrators group that has privilege, not Administrator. The Adminstrators group has a special privilege that allows them to take ownership of any object or container an that is the only privilege Administrators are always granted by default. Once an Administrator takes ownership, then they have the right to grant additional privileges. In case something got messed up, you might have to re-grant Administrators this privilege, then try taking ownership one last time: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms814016.aspx

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  • When I log on as the Administrator user, the options to take ownership are greyed out. I have no idea how to override this. Apr 8, 2011 at 10:32
  • Did you verify Administrator is in the local Administrators group? And take a look at the above article I mentioned?
    – penguin359
    Apr 8, 2011 at 22:00
  • yep, it makes no difference. Administrator is definitely in the administrators group....no luck... Apr 9, 2011 at 2:06
  • Well, I'd be downloading an Ubuntu/Knoppix LiveCD at this point. Works great at getting around those pesky permissions.
    – penguin359
    Apr 9, 2011 at 2:15
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    @penguin359, I would rather get to the bottom of this to learn something from it. Apr 9, 2011 at 22:23
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Sounds like an annoying problem.

What I'd do is get a LiveCD of knoppix or ubuntu or something, boot up with that, and copy the files over the network or possibly to a usbstick.

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