Windows 7 - Folder permissions

New to the forum, so I would just like to say hi to everyone.

I have a problem with subfolder permissions. I have a 2nd partition on my Windows 7 HDD with various data, most of the folders I do not have permission to access. Taking ownership of folders wasn't a problem, but the majority of subfolders and files access permission remains under previous Windows installation. Even though I have ownership of the folders and subfolders, I do not have permission rights.

Is there some way for the admin to grant permission for all subfolders, without having to go to each subfolder and file adding permission access?

I have tried take control reg fixes, but they only grant ownership and don't alter who has permission. I could go round adding permission access to all folders etc, but that would take me an age.

On a top level folder, if you right click on it and select properties is there a SECURITY tab?

Yes.

my system is to take ownership as Everyone, remove ALL permissions, add Everyone as permisison, and give it all options.

Usually that does the trick. But there is a bug in the recursion algorythm since Vista were not all permissions get properly applied.

Are you multi booting? If so with what OSes?

Do you have a recent image backup?

Reason I ask is changing parent-child security settings can be tricky at best.

That is what I usually do since it does not (usually) affect existing permissions. Some get queasy about granting Everyone all options but in my case I am Everyone....

As far as granting Everyone permission, I'm fine with that too as I am the sole user for the most part. Another HDD I have, all folders and files have Everyone access. But the 2nd partition on my main HDD, the folders grant access to a previous Windows installation, even when I took ownership of them.

I have used 2 OS's in the past, but I installed them on different drives, and I kept them independant. I have had before the odd folder here and there that was owned by either an older installation, or another Windows, if I am using 2. But, since installing Windows 7, never have had a mass of folders that I need to grant myself access to.

Going back to the allow Everyone idea, I did that for the parent folder that contains a lot of subfolders which I don't have permission. The parent folder I allowed Everyone permisson and ownership by Everyone, and deleted all others, but still subfolders allow permission only for what was I guess XP which I used before Windows 7. All subfolders though are owned by Everyone.

Seems that changing the ownership affects the parent, and all subfolders and files, but granting someone access to the parent, only gives them access the parent and not subfolders too, even if full control is allowed.

Of course it's not a problem that cannot be sorted, I can get access to these subfolders, it's just I wold have to allow access to each folder individually, which will take a loooooong time.

If the second partition is no longer shared with a second OS the brute force way may be to back them up and then restore them without "retaining the security settings". This depends on the backup utility.

Ah, that's an idea. I do have Acronis True Image 10, but that isn't compaitible with Windows 7. I have been using free backup software with Windows 7, which works great for backup and restore, but lacks the features of the paid for software. I could look into buying the latest Acronis, if no free software will do the job. But seeing that the free software works fine for just plain backup and restore, it would be a case of buying software just for this task. Either that, or spend many hours adjusting permissons I guess.

I use Acronis Home v11 and I know it has the option. Acronis may have a free trial version.

Macrium has a free version for home use as well that another fellow on the forum swears by but I don't know about its details.

At any rate - backup the partition, delete the folders in the partition then restore the folders without "retaining security settings". The files/folders should inherit the permission from the executing process (your login process).