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General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: eagl on February 20, 2005, 10:11:40 PM

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 20, 2005, 10:11:40 PM

A winxp problem...

My HD is getting cluttered with various files and folders that are not critical to the system, but which are completely protected.  I can't seem to figure out how to delete them, view them, or change their attributes.  I have the hd formatted as ntfs so even linux can't seem to touch it, because linux supports ntfs as read-only.  

Any ideas?  I basically pooched my winxp installation and need to delete a ton of files, because when I reinstalled windows using a recovery installation it can't even apply the critical patches because some files that need replacing with the updates are so untouchable even microsoft can't delete/replace them.

Bill Gates is an bellybutton for selling a filesystem with permissions this tight, but that's beyond the point.  Anyone know how to remove these untouchable permissions on files and folders in winxp?

Thx!

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: Kev367th on February 21, 2005, 05:44:19 AM

Make your 'user' account a member of the 'Administrators' group.

Right click 'My Computer' select Manage.
Choose Users/Goups.
Right click your account name, select 'Member Of' tab.
Add the Administrators group.

That give you unrestricted access to ALL files on the machine.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 06:13:14 AM

Didn't work kev.

One folder I was able to delete by using another computer browsing over the lan, but for the rest it became hopeless and I had to completely reinstall windows.

Even trying to update to sp2 would fail because the filesystem couldn't copy the updated files.  Yes, I was logged in as administrator.

So now I have a blank desktop staring at me instead of approx 6 years of customization.  Blah.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: straffo on February 21, 2005, 06:30:45 AM

If you log as an administrator you should have in the security tab the option of taking ownership of the files.

It should work.

Look at this : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&sd=tech

Sorry if I'm not clear but I've no network here and it's all I can remember :)

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 07:09:41 AM

I think it's a filesystem error.  Several files and folders always end up with access denied.  NTFS sucks, but the 2 gig filesize limit on fat32 also sucks.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 07:40:44 AM

straffo,

Thanks for the link.  That partially fixed it, although there are still several files and folders I can't get at.  I'll keep plugging at it.

The filesystem ownership was set to "everyone" except for some folders and files, which was apparently pissing off windows.  It wouldn't let me do anything to the filesystem like that.  I just set the ownership of the c:\ filesystem to administrator and let it go.  Some became accessable after that, some didn't.

I wish I knew this last night... I might have been able to save my old install.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: straffo on February 21, 2005, 07:44:58 AM

At least you didn't crash a serevr like me some year ago

Nothing like pissing 100 customers in 1 second  it make your life more interresting :p

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: JB66 on February 21, 2005, 07:55:49 AM

Have you tried safemode...sometimes that will let you get to "protected" files.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 07:58:24 AM

I tried safe mode before and it wouldn't let me do anything to the files.  I'll try the ownership thing again I think.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: Kev367th on February 21, 2005, 11:33:18 AM

Using take ownership ensure you select the 'Repalce owner on subcontainers and objects' checkbox.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 12:41:01 PM

Yea Kev I did that...  Damn thing didn't take on all folders, just most.  I'll probably try it again.

At least windows itself is running right, and a bit snappier too.  I sure as hell hate losing all my apps and settings though.  Some are going to be difficult to replace as they're freeware or shareware by companies that don't exist any more or got bought out so a fresh install will probably end up with some crippleware version.  Like I bought YATS 6 years ago, and have no friggen clue where my registration code is...

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: Siaf__csf on February 21, 2005, 12:52:19 PM

Check the attributes of the folders/files.

Open cmd, type attrib to see the file properties of wanted folder.

Then do "attrib *.* -s -u -h -r -a" as needed and then delete the files.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 21, 2005, 02:56:11 PM

attrib doesn't work.  Get access denied or some such error when attrib touches these files and folders.

Title: winxp permissions problem
Post by: eagl on February 26, 2005, 06:09:55 PM

Figured out part of it I think.

I couldn't get some software to install even after taking ownership and propagating permissions.  office wouldn't install, neither would adobe reader 7 although adobe reader 5 would.  I finally went back to safe mode and compared the security settings to those on my laptop which runs winxp pro.  I saw one major difference - my laptop had a permissions entry for "system", and my desktop didn't.  Hmmmm.  That might explain things.

I manually added in entries for "system" and "users", propagated them, took ownership of the volume once more, and retried installing office.  This time it installed.  Hopefully I've fixed it and won't have to reformat.