Windows 7: "Sharing" & "Ownership" Questions

Hi, folks. I just recently upgraded from x64 to 7x64.

I know next to nothing about "sharing" and "ownership" of files, except that I hate it. I don't even know if this is the correct forum for help.

I have several external HDs. They have thousands of files on them: avi, mp3, etc.

I just want them to play. But I'm having to go through each directory and subdirectory, clicking on each, to make them "share." Then the files inside each subdirectory won't play because I'm not the "owner" anymore. Lord have mercy.

I've got hundreds of directories and thousands of files.

Is there some "global" command somewhere where all my media will suddenly become "shared" and "owned" so everything just works again?

I've also got some databases that won't load anymore, each saying it is "already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view its data." Are these DBs just gone?

I've set up the Administrator user, figuring this might be the "trick." But no.

To go from XP to Windows 7 is really a culture shock, at least for me. I am so frustrated.



Help appreciated. Thanks.

Click "Computer", RIGHT-click on the external HDD that shows up there, and click properties. Click on the Security tab above the General tab page you show up to, and click edit. if you are a standard user, click users. If you are an administrator, click administrators. Then on the bottom, make sure you click the box that says "full control", and click okay. If any password prompts come up, enter the administrator's password. That SHOULD work, let me know if it doesn't.

Thank you. Yes, it does work.

Plus, on this site I found a "global" ownership fix that lets you take ownership of an entire drive, directory, etc.

Ownership does not necessarily fix the "permissions" issue, and now I'm sorting through permissions.

what is it that you mean when you say permissions?

Perhaps this will help you more? http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...ion-ownership/

If you use the drives on multiple computers and varieties of user accounts and types you may wish to:

Right click drive, Properties, Security, Advanced, Change Permissions, Add user "Everyone" and grant them read only of full control depending on the usage requirement.

Making sure to replace child object permissions and remove redundant user entries
although i would also explicitly allow your account just incase.

Please note this is a security risk and anyone who can access the drive physically or over a network can pretty much do what they want with it ("do you leave them plugged in or only when needed" is a major factor in the decision making process here).

I have a XP backup that I no longer want to keep on my d drive. Windows 7 is running, and I want to recover the space on my d drive.

I'm having trouble with a couple of files. I log into Windows 7 as Administrator, which I set up. Administrator "owns" the files to which I reference.

However, Administrator can't delete them. I figure this is a permissions issue since Admin owns the files. When I navigate Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner, in fact it verifies that Administrator is the owner.

I see, however, that Effective Permissions (whatever they are) are unaccessible (grayed out).

When I navigate Properties>Security>Edit>Add>Advanced>Find Now, and then choose Administrator, I'm thinking I'm giving Admin "full control." The "Permissions for Administrator" have all the checked marks, including "full control". I do note that these checked marks are grayed in -- I cannot manually change them.

Then I "ok" out of everything and go to delete, but I get the error message, "You require permission from Administrator to make changes to this file."

I have also gone through and given "permissions" to the "Everyone" group, but I still cannot affect the object file to delete.

OMG why didn't I know this? I had a bunch of shared files and folders and the ownerships got screwed up. I had to go through hundreds of files and resetting the permissions. Let me tell you, that night wasn't fun. I even re-intalled windows Vista. But guess what? It still kept the files!

Is xp backup located on a separate partition? Try defragmenting your Hard Disk. I myself would search up how to delete an undeletable file, and how to remove an xp backup, etc

why do you have an xp backup on Windows 7?

I have two internal HDs. One is C and one is D.

C used to contain XPx64. D contained a copy of C, at least the system files and was bootable. In case the C drive crashed.

Last weekend I upgraded to Windows 7. So C was wiped out.

Now that Windows 7 x64 seems to be stable, etc, I'm re-organizing D. Taking off the old XPx64 files for space. I will eventually copy C to D, as before.

I will try defrag and your other suggestions. Thanks.

you can completely reformat. I would suggest moving any important files off of "D" and onto "C" or a flashdrive.

Then type computer management into the search bar. On the left menu, under computer management (local), under storage, click disk management. It will pop up your two disk drives. RIGHT-click on your "D" drive at the top there and click format. Here is some extra reading in case you get stuck: How to partition and format a hard disk by using Windows XP Setup program