Permissions are screwed Need Suggestions

xagesz

n00b
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Jun 27, 2012
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My Server/Computer runs a 27TB Raid 6 Array. I previously had WHS 2011 installed and decided I wanted to run WIn7 more. Mainly due to WHS 2011 being dead and it was time to repurpose the computer. I unistalled WHS and got Win 7 running. Everything works just as well if not better. Just one problem.

My permissions to the 2 Drives created from my array are jacked. All my files are there and I can view them. But I can't copy, delete or anything along those lines. I cleared the permissions and removed everything except Administrators... So i deleted "SYSTEM", "Creator User" and one other. (I know this was bad now hence why I mention it. I since recreated them in the permissions as well with full rights) Well I've tried everything I can think of to remove all the Permissions from the drive and give My Personal user name and a group permissions. The computer and all files say i have the permissions. But The computer won't let me delete, rename, share or anything like that. I hope this is enough detail to get some opinions. Let me here your ideas.
 
I'm not sure if this would help, but there's this nifty registration file called "Take Ownership." What it does is adds a registry key that allows you to right-click something in explorer and click "Take Ownership," which should give you proper permissions for the files.
 
I Gave it a whirl with no result. Thanks though for the awesome tool. Will be useful in the long run.
 
Windows file permissions has sort of a steep learning curve. But at the drive level, you're going to want to change both the "Owner" and the Permissions of the root of the drive, to what's proper. You might take a look at a working drive to see what the permissions look like.

I believe at the root of the drive, the SYSTEM user "Owns" the drive, but subfolders are generally "Owned" the local machines administrators group

The SYSTEM user is also very important and should have full access throughout the entire drive.
Either your primary administrator account or the administrators group can "Own" the drive and have full permissions. "Users" usually has read only permissions.

After you figure that out, you want to look for the "Apply to child objects" (objects being the files and folders that are on the drive) which should fix every file and folder on the remainder of the drive. this can take a while depending on the size.
 
I Gave it a whirl with no result. Thanks though for the awesome tool. Will be useful in the long run.

I've found that while "Take Ownership" doesn't work every time it's a great "toolbox" item. :)

If you have no need for the data I'd try a secure erase with HDDerase which will clean the host protected area (HPA) and make it a totally clean drive.
 
Alright I will try to mimick the C: Drive and get it working the way you suggest. I would erase it if I could. But all my data is needed. I was planning to upgrade my array to a new system here soon. But the permissions won't even let me copy files. And I have ownership and all that to my personal user name. Its just nerve racking.

Also when It applies the permisions i get alot of access denied on the randomest files. Is there a way to run say a linux installation off a USB and redo all teh permissinos that way windows isn't using any of my files? Or would another fresh install of Windows 7 be worth it. I haven't installed any programs yet as I am finicking with the permissions so much. If I get an issue again ill make a darn video to showcase everything what its doing and all.

Sigh..... Typical me.
 
In the advanced settings there is the "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object".... its kinda like running a chown/chmod recursively through all files in linux, its very slick. You don't need to do individual files and folders.
 
Windows file permissions has sort of a steep learning curve. But at the drive level, you're going to want to change both the "Owner" and the Permissions of the root of the drive, to what's proper. You might take a look at a working drive to see what the permissions look like.

I believe at the root of the drive, the SYSTEM user "Owns" the drive, but subfolders are generally "Owned" the local machines administrators group

The SYSTEM user is also very important and should have full access throughout the entire drive.
Either your primary administrator account or the administrators group can "Own" the drive and have full permissions. "Users" usually has read only permissions.

After you figure that out, you want to look for the "Apply to child objects" (objects being the files and folders that are on the drive) which should fix every file and folder on the remainder of the drive. this can take a while depending on the size.

The only problem is that there are limits to how many child objects the permissions will propogate to. It depends on how the drive is organized as to whether or not this will turn into an issue.
 
For the most part this computer acts as a NAS now. There is only my personal user account on it to do all the settings and such. And everything else will eventually be Streamed and such. That can all be used as a single user.

I have tried doing Owner first then Permissions. I have tried every combo i can dream up. I've been at this for a day now. And it saddends me cause I don't want to redo all this work. The files for the most part are my media collection and a couple other random things like projects.

Any help that is definitely unorthodox would be appreciated.
 
I ran into this problem during my degree and in the end I just threw the VM away and started the exercise from scratch since I was losing too much time trying to figure this out, so I feel your pain ! Also on my home network I avoid sending files to one XP computer from my 7 computer because the permissions will always end up being screwed with nobody having any permission, so I use another XP as an intermediary, never could figure that one out.
 
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