To get started...yes I tried all the standard stuff defrag, checked memory, try reinstall system files ...all no help. When running this 80g HD as master it WILL NOT boot even to safe mode. Disk is 25% free space and I have 1gig ram, athalon 3500 (hrrm or was that 3600) socket 939.

When I put this drive as a slave I can see everything and access everything all sys files other users files ect accept one...the one i need. It says you dont have access when I try to open it. Cant get into admin cuz HD wont boot as master.

It appears to me that maybe I been hacked and they locked down this one folder some how. When checking the folder it shows no files no folders ect however disk space reflects files should still be there..

Found something in folders that says maybe hacker name was "sam" and elsewhere in files a 7 day lock down perhaps....wish I was a programmer LOL

Got any ideas on how to unlock this folder? Copying wont work.

I believe if they did it, theres a way to undo it LOL. Thanks for your help.

You need to change the security and take full permission of the folder, by right clicking on it

Note if you don't see the security folder (after right click then properties)
The try it in Safe mode

Thank you for your reply however I cant get to the security because it wont boot as master drive therefore I am basically helpless as far as admin or securities go (when I right click while viewing folder with HD as slave, there is no place to access security or permissions). If I knew steps in DOS I might could try that however even overwriting sys files with OEM disk to clear all passwords and securities didnt fix it either...did that twice. Think they encrypted folder and pass protected it while also protecting whatever they did in registry otherwise the overwrite of sys files should have cleaned up registry HRMMM

No, it's exactly as I said above

By the way, I know it's slave (at the moment)
And I don't know if you have tried Safe mode yet (not safe mode on the faulty drive of course )

When I right click on the subfolder or the main documents and settings folder it doesnt give me anywhere to click on security.

It shows three tabs at the top. General, Sharing and Customize

Under the General Tab when I click the advanced tab it says something about archive and then lower encrypt. Under archive only fast searching is checked and nothing under encrypt part is checked.

Under the Sharing tab when I tried to add it to shared files it told me access is denied.

And of course the Customize is for folder icons ect.

That's great it's working normally

Now you really don't want me to repeat the above again, do you?

Omg thank you thank you thank you

Thank you Kimsland!!! I finally got what you were telling me DUH oot the good machine into safe mode and go into the old HD and it worked! I was right I was hacked and they stole that folder. They put in a crap load of back doors so I am going to reformat and keep the new saved disk offline untill I can really scrub it clean.

Thanks for the update :grinthumb
I'm sorry to hear about you being "hacked"
At least this episode may have taught you to always make external (CD; Flash etc) backups of your data.

Hacked again...any good ideas to stop this?

This is terrible! New HD Hacked in and done the same thing. No I didnt infect by transfer of anything from old HD. What can I do to stop this? Any good tracking or tracer programs I can trap them with, or who would I approach to try to back track from the HD's...isnt there laws against this? <sighs>

Sorry should have mentioned don't "reformat"
Instead remove the Partition during the Windows setup (you will see this prompt to do so)
Once the Partition has been removed, continue the install of Windows (no manual partitioning or formatting involved, just continue)

Did not reformat old HD..

I did not reformat the old HD.. I am keeping it to see if it can be tracked or traced. Its the new HD I just bought. I only put fresh install of windows on it and they did exact same thing. How does that happen with no file transfers from infected disk?
BTW ty for all your time and expertise

There are only two ways (on a clean install of Windows)
1. via email address (obviously nearly anything can be sent to a known email)
But you would have needed to open a bad email, ie just left unopened cannot cause any issue

2. via IP address.
Everyone is supplied a unique IP address, you can find yours here: http://whatismyipaddress.com/
If you weren't aware of this, I'm sure it will be a big shock

Anyway if someone knows your IP they can try to "hack" into your computer (if they were hackers of course)
To change this fixed address (or usually within a small range of allowed IPs), you will need to contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) in most cases they are reluctant to help though. ie changing your IP can have other issues, ie lets say you were hypothetically, banned from a online gaming community or even a tech forum (ie your IP was banned) well, just contacting your ISP on this will not give you automatic rights for its change.

I can't think of anything else on a cleanly installed Windows OS.
Unless it wasn't clean. ie Some foreign programs installed
Or if you suddenly started searching the web, on sites that are not ideal