Denied external drive permission after factory reset

[Lyrical MC]

Hi there,

I recently backed up all my data onto an external drive before factory resetting my laptop. However now when I try and access the files on the external I get a message saying the following:

Now I have been able to remove this message for the initial folder, however all subfolders and files then give me the same message.:shock:

I have tried right clicking the folder > properties > security and then adding my new user to the permissions list and clicking all the check boxes below but however this only works the the current folder and no subfolders.

Looking for a way to avoid having to do this 1000 times.


Thanks

 

[Slammer]

Are you on an administrator account? If not, getting on one should probably fix that problem.

Also try disabling UAC. Go to Start and click on your user picture in the top right of the start menu. From that window, click on Change User Account Control settings.Drag the slider all the way down and restart your computer to get it to turn off.

If none of this helps, try accessing your hard drive with your computer in safe mode.

 

[alphanumeric]

Thats weird! I just did a clean install and started getting that very message when I tried to access My Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders that I keep on a separate partition. I did the same thing I always do and changed the location of the original folders to point to the folders on my second partition. I've done this before but this is the first time I can remember ever seeing that pop up message. I used the same Username and password for my user account that I always do too. I was only prompted the once though for each main folder. Once I clicked Continue I wasn't prompted again for any of the sub folders in that folder.
It was only the folders previously tied to my User account that did it too, clicking other folders on that partition didn't get that prompt.

 

[Lyrical MC]

Are you on an administrator account? If not, getting on one should probably fix that problem.

Also try disabling UAC. Go to Start and click on your user picture in the top right of the start menu. From that window, click on Change User Account Control settings.Drag the slider all the way down and restart your computer to get it to turn off.

If none of this helps, try accessing your hard drive with your computer in safe mode.

Yeah I'm using the administrator account, I'll give that other suggestion a shot and report back.

EDIT: Tried that and still getting the same problem (posted back earlier but must have errored)

Thats weird! I just did a clean install and started getting that very message when I tried to access My Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders that I keep on a separate partition. I did the same thing I always do and changed the location of the original folders to point to the folders on my second partition. I've done this before but this is the first time I can remember ever seeing that pop up message. I used the same Username and password for my user account that I always do too. I was only prompted the once though for each main folder. Once I clicked Continue I wasn't prompted again for any of the sub folders in that folder.
It was only the folders previously tied to my User account that did it too, clicking other folders on that partition didn't get that prompt.

Hmm sounds pretty much the exact same problem as I'm having, hopefully someone has a solution to it.

 

[Lyrical MC]

Bump

 

[Slammer]

Ok try this: Open command prompt as an administrator. Type in
takeown /f [external drive letter here]:\ /r

For example, if your drive is on D you would type takeown /f D:\ /r

If I remember correctly, that should give you permissions for every subdirectory and file on your drive. Just make sure you put the right drive letter in, because if you make a mistake and put in, say, the letter of the drive your OS is on right now, that might cause problems. If you do put the wrong letter in by mistake, you can always hit ctrl+c to cancel what it's doing.

Depending on how much stuff you have on your drive, this might take a while to complete. If this doesn't fix your problem, I have another, more powerful (and therefore more risky) command you can run. If it's really a permissions error, one of them should work.

 

[Lyrical MC]

I tried what you said above and got this message:

 

[alphanumeric]

Thats weird! I just did a clean install and started getting that very message when I tried to access My Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders that I keep on a separate partition. I did the same thing I always do and changed the location of the original folders to point to the folders on my second partition. I've done this before but this is the first time I can remember ever seeing that pop up message. I used the same Username and password for my user account that I always do too. I was only prompted the once though for each main folder. Once I clicked Continue I wasn't prompted again for any of the sub folders in that folder.
It was only the folders previously tied to my User account that did it too, clicking other folders on that partition didn't get that prompt.

Hmm sounds pretty much the exact same problem as I'm having, hopefully someone has a solution to it.[/QUOTE]

I only got that prompt once and only on first access to the initial folder. I didn't get prompted again when I accessed any sub folders in that folder. It was only select folders on that partition too. This is the first time I can remember seeing that prompt. If I had to guess I'd say a Windows security update tweaked something. Just a guess though, I'm not getting nagged any more so I haven't investigated it any further. I just wanted to let you know you aren't the only one getting that message.

 

[Lyrical MC]

Thats weird! I just did a clean install and started getting that very message when I tried to access My Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos folders that I keep on a separate partition. I did the same thing I always do and changed the location of the original folders to point to the folders on my second partition. I've done this before but this is the first time I can remember ever seeing that pop up message. I used the same Username and password for my user account that I always do too. I was only prompted the once though for each main folder. Once I clicked Continue I wasn't prompted again for any of the sub folders in that folder.
It was only the folders previously tied to my User account that did it too, clicking other folders on that partition didn't get that prompt.

Hmm sounds pretty much the exact same problem as I'm having, hopefully someone has a solution to it.

I only got that prompt once and only on first access to the initial folder. I didn't get prompted again when I accessed any sub folders in that folder. It was only select folders on that partition too. This is the first time I can remember seeing that prompt. If I had to guess I'd say a Windows security update tweaked something. Just a guess though, I'm not getting nagged any more so I haven't investigated it any further. I just wanted to let you know you aren't the only one getting that message.[/QUOTE]

As much as it's not great to know you are getting the same problem it is somewhat reassuring

 

[Slammer]

I tried what you said above and got this message:

Oh you just didn't put spaces between the arguments. Here, copy this:
takeown /f g:\ /r
Then, in command prompt, right-click the the top bar and select Edit -> Paste. Then hit enter. That should do it.

 

[Lyrical MC]

I tried what you said above and got this message:

Oh you just didn't put spaces between the arguments. Here, copy this:
takeown /f g:\ /r
Then, in command prompt, right-click the the top bar and select Edit -> Paste. Then hit enter. That should do it.

Thanks tried it a few times with various spacing, must have just been getting it wrong. However doesn't seem to have worked got quite a large list of things. I'll post a few:

 

[Slammer]

Ok from your screenshots, it looks like it's only failing for critical Windows files and folders that were on your drive before the restore. Depending on what you're trying to do with all your backed up data, it might be OK this way. If you're just putting all your personal folder/files back, then you should be able to copy all your personal stuff back over no problem now. On the other hand if you're trying to completely restore your entire hard drive to how it was before the reinstall, you'll need a different program and method for that. What exactly are you looking to do with these backed up files?

 

[Slammer]

Also, did you manually copy everything onto your hard drive before the restore, or did you use a program? If so, what program was it?

 

[Lyrical MC]

I am trying to restores some of the files on the hard drive such as music and some office documents etc. But the majority of it I just want to keep on the drive itself such as movies and games. (The whole reason I did a factory reset was to clear everything like this from my laptop and just run them directly from the drive to avoid the laptop slowing down)

I used the software with the product itself for loading the data to the drive which it periodically backed up itself. However I had quite a bit of trouble getting the software to work. Can't remember if it was preloaded or I had to download additional software from the website for the product.

If it's of any help the drive is a Buffalo Drivestation 2TB.

 

[Slammer]

Ooh ok first of all let me say that running installed programs off that drive like you want probably won't work. When you install a program, it usually stores data in locations other than just Program Files. The two most common other places are the registry and you're user's AppData folder. Now, some programs are simple enough that they store all their data in their program files folder, but unless they're really old, very simple, or specifically designed to be be "Portable," they likely store info in some other location. Which means they will fail to run from your external hard drive.

If you want them to run like this, you'll have to install them like you normally would, and change their install path to somewhere on your external HD. This way, all the settings in the registry and whatnot know to look for the information on your drive when you try to run a program. You'll just have to make sure you're drive is always assigned the same letter by Windows, and this method should work. But just running programs off your backup? Very likely to fail.

Anyway, if it's a software that came with your HD, then it likely just made copies of all the files you told it to back up. Which means that in theory, that command I had you run should have unlocked all the personal music, documents, and videos etc. on your drive that you want to use know. See if you can access them now.

Since it looks like only system folders are still locked, I think you should just ignore them. If you want to delete them to save space or anything, I can guide you through unlocking them, though. Just let me know.

If your normal files are still inaccessible, let me know and I'll give you a better command to run.

 

[Lyrical MC]

I had guessed this may have been an issue with regards to running programmes from the external drive, but it shouldn't be a problem as primerally it's documents and films along with saves from a 3D modeling package.

Unfortunately all the folders still seems to be locked, I can access them by going through the stages in the inital post but all the subfolders and such are still locked.

 

[alphanumeric]

Your current windows 7 install will likely create a recycle bin folder on that drive and may block access. I believe the system volume information folder has to do with system restore and being a system folder may also be blocked by windows. There shouldn't be anything in those folders you want anyway so I wouldn't worry about not getting access to them. If they are leftovers from a previous install windows can't use them anyway and I'd probably just try deleting them. If you have room I would just try to copy over what you want to keep to another drive and format the problematic external drive. Then copy your stuff back and see if file access is any better.

 

[Lyrical MC]

I tried copying the data from the drive the my laptop although it wouldn't allow me to copy anything past the first few folders which I manually configured permission for myself.

 

[alphanumeric]

OK, that sucks, I thought you might have tried it but wasn't sure. That would drive me nuts, I have a lot of sub folders in My Music folder, My Pictures folder too for that matter. I wish I could be more help but I'm not getting those prompts anymore or I would still be trying to figure out why. What happened to me was when I went to play some music. MP glitched and wouldn't play the music even though it had searched it all out originally. I forget what the error was but that prompted me to have a look in my music folder. Thats when I got that Prompt you posted. I clicked continue and then looked around in my music folder. After that MP played my music fine. Looking in a couple of other folders on that partition got me that same message. I kind of scratched my head about it but they stopped and everything seems to work OK now, so I just forgot about it until your post.

 

[Slammer]

Ok, using this command has a tendency to screw up permissions for system files, so make sure you only use it on personal files. Although since you're not planning to use any of the old system files on your hard drive, we can just apply it to your whole drive.

cacls [drive letter here]:\ /t /g [username here]:F

So assuming your drive is still on g:\ and your username is Chris (based on your command prompt screenshots) the exact command will be:

cacls C:\ /t /g Chris:f

You can just copy and paste that into command prompt same way as the other one. If this doesn't restore permissions to you, then we've probably got a much bigger problem somewhere. Let me know if it works