Repair file permissions in Windows XP

[timswim78]

I was at my parent's house this weekend, and I setup an external hdd to backup their documents (photos, videos, spreadsheets, and etc.) One directory was very troublesome, because it kept saying that the files could not be found. I could open the files in the directory, but I could not copy, overwrite, or delete them.

What should I do to repair the files/directory/disk?


Just to be safe, I created a ghost image of the disk (it had no problems).

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

Log in as administrator and take over permissions of the folder?

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: BespinReactorShaft
Log in as administrator and take over permissions of the folder?

I was logged in with an admin account and was still getting the error messages,

 

[Bluestealth]

Were you trying to take back premissions or claim ownership, because you can't restore premissions until you take ownership...
Security, Advanced, Owner, Click on your name, or Admin group name, click ok or apply.

 

[BespinReactorShaft]

^ Like he said

Btw, what kind of error messages (e.g. Permission denied)?

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: BespinReactorShaft
^ Like he said

Btw, what kind of error messages (e.g. Permission denied)?

Per the original post, I got an error saying the files could not be found whenever I tried to copy, delete, or overwrite them.

Permissions is not the best term. I should have said that I just want to be able to use the files. I'm not sure if the permissions are screwed up or what the problem is. All I know is that Windows says that the files cannot be found whenever I try to copy, delete, or overwrite them.

 

[Bluestealth]

I suggest running chkdsk C: /R

Also make sure that you can see all files, including operating system/hidden, sometimes it will not copy them unless you do this... goofy windows.

 

[MadRat]

Sometimes the console will not let you grab file ownership. In those cases go to systernal's website and grab the chown utility. It'll fix the ownership w/o a hitch.

 

[ShadowBlade]

"an" admin acct is not enough, you have to be on the administrator account

 

[MadRat]

Not with chown. Any admin should be able to take over ownership even from the sysadmin, but once in awhile Windows XP &above lose the ability to do so. Like I said, with chown that was never a problem. I'd look into the file attributes, too, and reset them to make sure they are not read-only, archive-flagged, and marked as hidden or system files. These attributes also go haywire for no apparent reason in XP & above. Microsoft never had a solution for the problems, they always insisted the machine needed to be rebuilt. Not a good answer for a railroad when you have several do it each week out of thousands.