How to Backup Vista user account information

I am using Visa home premium, I can protect the files with individual user
permission, after protection, if OS crashed, we can reinstall the OS, but
user account information can not be the same to access protected folder. To
avoid this situation, I want to keep backup of existing user account
information, I know in Vista ultimate, we can do system backup, but in Vista
Home premium, I just need backup the user account information, how to do that
? Thanks, G' Day!

Bala

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:36:01 -0700, Balakumar wrote:

> I am using Visa home premium, I can protect the files with individual user
> permission, after protection, if OS crashed, we can reinstall the OS, but
> user account information can not be the same to access protected folder. To
> avoid this situation, I want to keep backup of existing user account
> information, I know in Vista ultimate, we can do system backup, but in Vista
> Home premium, I just need backup the user account information, how to do that
> ? Thanks, G' Day!
>
> Bala

Look up "take ownership" in Help and Support. In general, any administrator
can edit permissions for an object to add or change owners. A newly added
owner will then have access to the target objects.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

Hi,

What I understand, if I set permission to named user (System before crash)
and set deny to all others (including administrators), still new installation
administrator can set the permission to new user ?

Example:
Drive C is windows vista having user Bala
Drive D in another disk folder1 permission only to Bala

now I reinstall Vista in Drive C, in new Vista, no Original account of Bala
exist,

Can I change the permission to new user (Bala) to the folder1 in Drive D in
new Vista

Thanks, to Sharon F

G' Day!

Bala


"Sharon F" wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:36:01 -0700, Balakumar wrote:
>
> > I am using Visa home premium, I can protect the files with individual user
> > permission, after protection, if OS crashed, we can reinstall the OS, but
> > user account information can not be the same to access protected folder. To
> > avoid this situation, I want to keep backup of existing user account
> > information, I know in Vista ultimate, we can do system backup, but in Vista
> > Home premium, I just need backup the user account information, how to do that
> > ? Thanks, G' Day!
> >
> > Bala
>
> Look up "take ownership" in Help and Support. In general, any administrator
> can edit permissions for an object to add or change owners. A newly added
> owner will then have access to the target objects.
>
> --
> Sharon F
> MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
>

On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:14:00 -0700, Balakumar wrote:

> Hi,
>
> What I understand, if I set permission to named user (System before crash)
> and set deny to all others (including administrators), still new installation
> administrator can set the permission to new user ?
>
> Example:
> Drive C is windows vista having user Bala
> Drive D in another disk folder1 permission only to Bala
>
> now I reinstall Vista in Drive C, in new Vista, no Original account of Bala
> exist,
>
> Can I change the permission to new user (Bala) to the folder1 in Drive D in
> new Vista
>
> Thanks, to Sharon F

You're welcome!
Remember: Administrators always have access to any files.

In day to day workings, a user may set their documents to "private" and
Vista will "block" all users from accessing them except the "owner" (the
user that created them).

The fact remains that Administrators have access to any files. While they
may not be able to double click a file to open it directly , they can edit
permissions and, bingo, they now have access too.

Let's say I have 2 internal hard drives and have protected files on D:. I
reinstall Vista on C:. My old user account is now completely gone - even if
I've create a new user account of the same name on the new install. I think
this follows your scenario above...

I try to access one of those files on D:. Vista will still be protecting
them for their original owner (the old me, not the new me) and will deny
access. To regain access, I edit the permissions. When I open the
permissions screen, Vista will show the owner as "<unknown> + a long ID
number" since it no longer possesses the corresponding account information
to identify the original owner.

I'll edit the permissions to add my new account as owner and files can be
accessed once again.

When beta testing Vista, I was dual booting XP and various beta versions of
Vista. I had multiple locations for files that I wanted access to:

1) A volume of files that I kept accessible to both Vista and XP. To have
access to these files after a new install of Vista, I would edit
permissions whenever a new Vista version had to be installed and add myself
as an owner.

2) Files that I had previously backed up to CD or DVD with the intent to
copy them to my user folders after the new version of Vista was installed.
Since these media types use a file system that does not support NTFS
permissions, these were accessible as soon as they were copied to my user
folders within Vista. No editing of permissions needed.

Permissions is really the easy part since it's just an editing exercise.
Making sure you have your data backed up on a regular schedule is the
important part. This part is a little more difficult but not too much once
you work out a backup routine and *keep up with it.*

By the way, this discussion excludes the use of encryption to protect
files. That's another ball of wax entirely and must be added to the
equation if it is in use. Home Premium doesn't ship with or use the new Bit
Locker bits so I skipped over that aspect entirely. If using third party
encryption, check that documentation for that product for maintaining
access to encrypted files.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User