Folder permissions

[Cleft]

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 W7 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.

 

[Muad Dib]

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 W7 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?

 

[Cleft]

Yes.

 

[petrossa]

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.

 

[Muad Dib]

Yes.

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.

 

[Muad Dib]

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.

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....

 

[Cleft]

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 W7, 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 W7. 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.

 

[Muad Dib]

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.

 

[Cleft]

Ah, that's an idea. I do have Acronis True Image 10, but that isn't compaitible with W7. I have been using free backup software with W7, 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.

 

[Muad Dib]

Ah, that's an idea. I do have Acronis True Image 10, but that isn't compaitible with W7. I have been using free backup software with W7, 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).

 

[Zidane24]

Could you try my batch file and see if it helps your issue?

Run the bat as an administrator!

 

[Cleft]

I'll look into it tomorrow, I'll have plenty of time then.

 

[MikeEx]

I had this problem, and found out just gaining permanent access every re-install just piles extra groups and user names to the access list.

To fix it permanently:
Right click on the folder.
Go to properties.
Go to security tab:
Hit the advanced button
Hit the Change Permissions button

Remove all accounts that have /{2d8f6g34**** type strings.
Those are previous accounts that you gave permanent access.

You want it to look how regular non problem folders have their groups and users. *example, attached picture*

Check both boxes:
[x] Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent
[x] Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object.

Hit apply. There should be no problems after that.

Sorry for the large picture.
I'm using a 1920x1080 monitor with 125% DPI.

 

[Cleft]

Excellent! Problem solved. I hadn't tried checking the child object permission box before. For some reason it didn't occur to me to try that. There are a couple of folders that are still not under my ownership, but they are easily rectified. Many thanks for all the help and advice given

 

[petrossa]

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.

it's imperative you empty the Permissions list. This will in effect put the acl to a blank slate. Then add everyone as only permission.

If you leave other permisisons they can conflict, as some permissions exclude lower permissions.

 

[Cleft]

Yes, I have done that. I had done that before with one of the parent folders. I allowed only Everyone access and ownership, but the ownership filtered through to the subfolders, whereas permissions didn't, that's what was baffling me. The error of my ways, was that I hadn't checked the box/es in the change permission button, they removed any child protection that may have been present, and inherit permissions. For whatever reason, I hadn't tried that before it was suggested.

Thanks once again everyone for the help given.

 

[PsyGuy]

Try This

I had the same after needing to rebuild my Windows 7 install but having 4 harddrives (1 primary for OS and Programs, and 3 others to handle all user files and backups). I had problems getting to be the "owner" and set security afterwards for shared folders (I am full admin, but kids have limited permissions to avoid things getting messed up), running into the problem that each change had to be done at the folder level. Some subfolders are 12 or more levels deep and 10tb worth of data in all - screw that!

Anyway, came across this little post elsewhere with a script that works aces for stripping out legacy ownership and giving me back my god-like feeling of authority!
Add "Take Ownership" to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

 

[Sittley]

Thanks!

Huge thank you for the tip about an Everyone user. I had a corrupt version of windows 7 installed on a spare drive and it refused to propagate permission changes to sub-folders and files, despite checking that box. (Don't know if this is just a bug with the Administrators account or with Windows).
Yet creating a new Everyone account propagated the permissions perfectly and let me delete the b**:devil:** in one fell swoop.