Can't copy files, Require permission from self, Common fix not working

I'm attempting to copy files from one HDD to another. The tens-of-thousands of files in question are in a complex hierarchy system, and windows file copy dialog isn't helping me identify the specific culprits, since many files share names within the hierarchy and the dialog doesn't show the path.

By skipping files to see the many offending files, I see that at least some of them were created by another individual from whom I acquired them. I have already used windows advanced security dialog to grant myself ownership of the parent folder and subfolders and children. Then I used the popular registry addition called Take Ownership Shortcut to attempt to take permission. Neither approach gave any indication of failure, yet I still cannot copy these files.

If it matters, I do not care about taking any action with these files besides copying them to another HDD, because I'll be formatting the source location's drive afterwards. I am at a loss - the message I receive informs me that I need permission from Administrator or my own account name, whomever I gave ownership to. (But that's me, obviously.) It's as though, despite owning the file and being logged into that account, I cannot access the culprit files.

Any assistance from others who've seen this specific dilemma before would be greatly appreciated. This is my livelihood I'm dealing with - if these files are lost, I'm out thousands of hours of work. So, safe suggestions first, please.

Many thanks for your time,

Are there any other suggestions I might attempt?

Thank you for the reply, I'd forgotten all about elevation. Unfortunately, the same issue occurred during the copy process under the elevated admin account.

I allowed the operation to complete with a skip-conflicts flag and found that about 100 files are refusing to be copied. Is there a utility which might allow me to compare two directories against one another to determine exactly what's missing? Or a file copying utility which displays the full path of conflicts? Maybe I can work around this issue if I knew each affected file's full path.

As it turns out, no, I cannot make a copy of this directory, even on the same drive. The same files trigger the need-permission exception, even as an elevated administrator.

Am I doomed yet? I feel some sort of doom is impending, involving many hours of monotony, coping a thousand sub-directories manually to isolate culprit files.

Thanks for the continued support. As mentioned, I've taken ownership of the parent directory, as well as all child directories and files. I've used both the advanced security ownership dialog and the Take Ownership Shortcut mentioned above. Neither approach indicated anything but success, and the error message itself indicates the files' ownership matches my account.

The exception message I receive when coping these culprit files says that I need the permission of the account I am currently logged into, regardless of ownership or elevation status. It's utter nonsense, as far as I can tell.

If there is anything else to try, I'm willing to try rather than submit to the monotony of the only workaround I can see.

Evidently, some versions of some files were encrypted, thus I was unable to copy them. Why this wasn't indicated in an obvious manner I don't know, but so be it. Spent a few days chasing my tail for naught. Windows file copier really ought to display full paths when conflicts arise...

Sadly, with no key, I'm up a creek as far as they're concerned. Now to write to the respective clients and vendors to request unencrypted copies of these files. Thanks again for your assistance,