Can't access partition on laptop hard drive

Here's where I am:

I just had to reformat my Dell laptop hard drive. Dell DataSafe backup failed miserably. So I'm on my own.

I have a partition L: that the message says IS NOT ACCESSIBLE.

I have changed owner of L: to Me (Administrators (DOV-PC Administrator)), permissions (Me, Full control and all other), and other things. I get SETTING SECURITY INFORMATION popup (once per major change) but still no access. According to L:'s Properties, it's a 300GB drive with only 25GB used.

For some reason, the drive is displayed as L: (V:). Not sure why.

Any ideas about how to gain access?

(It's not the end of the world. Before reformatting, I copied (via Ubuntu; thank you Google for warning me how unreliable Dell DataUNsafe backup is) everything I needed, including a few drives such as L:. But it would be convenient to not have to restore 25GB from external hard drive.)

Try changing owner to your user account not the admin group.

GokAy said:

Try changing owner to your user account not the admin group.

I already was owner. But that wasn't enough. I had to give myself "Effective Permission" See attached pics for details. But all the files in the root of this partition have locks showing over the folder or file icon.

What's that all about?

Anyway, I seem to be able to access all the files. THANKS for waking me up.

Effective Permissions just shows exactly that, the effective permissions :)
I have not seen this warning before, and a search didn't reveal much.

Can you post a screenshot of root V please?

Oh well, 25GB is not much to restore Just format it and recopy perhaps

Haven't read through all of this, but seems you already done it? Windows 7 Professional 64 is Locking Me Out of my Folders! - Microsoft Community