Hello Everyone,

I was working on my friends computer, which she just bought, and it
came with a partitioned hard drive C: with vista home premium on it, the
partition was 10gb, and then a D: which was 290gb. As background, this
is a brand new machine, and we bought it after she fried her last one
with virus after virus. So of course, as soon as i left, she downloaded
all these programs to the computer, but she put the files on the C:
drive and it was maxed out, and she was constantly getting messages to
clear space. I went in remotely from my machine, deleted the programs
she installed, and wanted to secure the C: drive from being written on,
since there was only 300mb left over after the operating system.

I went to the C: drive, clicked the securities tab, clicks on users,
and clicked edit. I thought i was editing the users group, which would
have consisted of the accounts not assigned admin priviledges, and i
denied the write setting, and read and execute setting. it sent me
through a whole bunch of warning screens, and i passed through them
quickly, and now she has no access to anything, and i cant change the
permissions back because it says access is denied.

I am fairly computer saavy, i just made an error and cant find a fix.
if someone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks


--
mbsales11701

mbsales11701 wrote:


Hello Everyone,

I was working on my friends computer, which she just bought, and it
came with a partitioned hard drive C: with vista home premium on it, the
partition was 10gb, and then a D: which was 290gb. As background, this
is a brand new machine, and we bought it after she fried her last one
with virus after virus. So of course, as soon as i left, she downloaded
all these programs to the computer, but she put the files on the C:
drive and it was maxed out, and she was constantly getting messages to
clear space. I went in remotely from my machine, deleted the programs
she installed, and wanted to secure the C: drive from being written on,
since there was only 300mb left over after the operating system.

I went to the C: drive, clicked the securities tab, clicks on users,
and clicked edit. I thought i was editing the users group, which would
have consisted of the accounts not assigned admin priviledges, and i
denied the write setting, and read and execute setting. it sent me
through a whole bunch of warning screens, and i passed through them
quickly, and now she has no access to anything, and i cant change the
permissions back because it says access is denied.

I am fairly computer saavy, i just made an error and cant find a fix.
if someone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks

You can't make the C:\ drive unwritable or Windows won't work. You can't
secure the computer from someone who refuses to practice safe computing.
Restore the computer to factory condition by whatever method the OEM
provided and have your friend start over. Some restore methods, such as the
one provided by Sony, allow you to choose a different partitioning scheme.
If this is possible on your friend's computer, either make it one partition
or increase the C:\ partition to around 80GB. I would just make it one
partition. If the OEM doesn't give you that ability, restore the default
and then use Vista's partition management to change the space allocated.
Here is a link to MVP Barb Bowman's explanation of how to do that:

MVP Barb Bowman on changing partitions in Vista:
http://tinyurl.com/36v734

I don't expect it will do any good, but here are some links to give your
friend about practicing safe computing:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=27971 - So How Did I Get
Infected Anyway?
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
https://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/
http://www.getnetwise.org/
http://wiki.castlecops.com/Malware_R...:_Introduction
http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html
http://www.aumha.org/a/parasite.htm - The Parasite Fight
http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldron.../05/82584.aspx - MVP
Harry Waldron - The Family PC - How to stay safe on the Internet
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm - Eric Howes on Rogue
Antispyware Programs

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Hi, mbsales.

Just want to add to what Malke said:

I am fairly computer saavy, i just made an error and cant find a fix.

Even those of us who are computer-savvy with WinXP have to learn some new
techniques to work with Vista, especially when it comes to User accounts and
permissions, and to certain files and folders (such as C:\ and \Program
Files) which Vista protects much more vigorously than WinXP. My own
background is as "one man, one computer, no net but the Internet". I've had
to learn a lot about permissions and such in my transition to Vista. Malke
and other MVPs have helped me with this transition.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"mbsales11701" wrote in message
...

Hello Everyone,

I was working on my friends computer, which she just bought, and it
came with a partitioned hard drive C: with vista home premium on it, the
partition was 10gb, and then a D: which was 290gb. As background, this
is a brand new machine, and we bought it after she fried her last one
with virus after virus. So of course, as soon as i left, she downloaded
all these programs to the computer, but she put the files on the C:
drive and it was maxed out, and she was constantly getting messages to
clear space. I went in remotely from my machine, deleted the programs
she installed, and wanted to secure the C: drive from being written on,
since there was only 300mb left over after the operating system.

I went to the C: drive, clicked the securities tab, clicks on users,
and clicked edit. I thought i was editing the users group, which would
have consisted of the accounts not assigned admin priviledges, and i
denied the write setting, and read and execute setting. it sent me
through a whole bunch of warning screens, and i passed through them
quickly, and now she has no access to anything, and i cant change the
permissions back because it says access is denied.

I am fairly computer saavy, i just made an error and cant find a fix.
if someone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks


--
mbsales11701