In the recent hard disc crash, I had a back-up for most of my files. Some of the files on a back-up drive was somehow avoiding me with an “Access Denied” even though I was logged in as the Administrator (or Administrative Rights). While asking around for help, a member from the Team Macromedia suggested me to google for the same. I finally got the solution on How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP.
Here are the steps in quickie mode
- Log on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.
- If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing.
- Right-click the folder/file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
- Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
- Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
- In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
- Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folderName. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?
All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes. - Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.
Brajeshwar posted this article
on Sat, Sep 24th, 2005 at 5:34 am
Categorized under Technology and has the following tags
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Thanks a lot for this info! Exactly what I was looking for…!
Many thanks! This one certainly saved my day.
Bummer, that doesnt work. The files are from another computer I discarded and are encrypted. No way to get access even though I am the one that encrypted them in the first place.
Perfect, this solved my problem, can’t thanks you enough!
Thanks very much! It had been so long since I’d seen the Security tab in WinXP Home that I forgot how to get to it.
Well and what to do if there is no Security tab in the preferences dialog of a particular folder? Logged in as Admin, all attempt to touch the folder results “Access denied”
Wow this worked Great, i backed up a Computer and it told me that the files were private. well this did the trick
Man! Thanks SOOOO much for this! It helped to get back files from a directory I “shared” on the network that never shared properly. After disabling sharing, I had no access to the directory or any of the “non-existent files” inside. (Properties kept saying the directory was 0 bytes when there are many databases inside totalling 500MB+ each!
So thanks! This sorted out my problem!
Does this methord work if your recovering files from another machine that has died?
This method only works if the files were not encrypted. If they are encrypted you are out of luck.
There is a simpler way that does not require in XP Home to go to Safe Mode. See my review about FaJo XP File Security Extension. I spent three hours to realize my problem was related to ownership and not to process lock. In 5 minutes I solved it by this German too.
This helped tremendously. My situation was this: my desktop’s motherboard failed, needed documents off the desktop’s hard drive. Bought a IDE SATA to USB cable, connected desktop hard drive to laptop’s USB port, tried accessing documents but ran into “access is denied” because desktop was password protected. Found this site, had to look up how to turn off simple file share (found solution here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874 ) and at this moment I am taking ownership of my desktop files! Thanks for the solution.
Thank you so much!!!!! This was a quick solution to what I was trying to do… I thought I was going to have to deal with resetting permissions and crap for days or even weeks. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I Have changed the ownership of the files but still it is not accessible…
please tell me how can i get it done?????
YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE!!!! MY COMPUTER CRASHED AND CREATED A NEW PROFILE FOR ME. IT’S working beautifully except I lost all my old content. I was able to move my docs into the new profile and am now the owner of a working computer thank you thank you thank you.
This information is great. I tried another article but they didn’t mention that in Windows XP home you had to start the computer in the safe mode to get to the security tab.
Thanks a million.
Cloyd Shiffer
Got me back into a hijacked Hosts file. Like most everyone else above has said, great advice. Many thanks.
Boyd
This was excellent information. Solved in 2 minutes what I have been trying to figure out for 2 hours! Thank you so much!
Hello,
i have problem with this.. i have follow the step but the files still can’t be open..
im using winxp profesional sp2
with disable simple file sharing
anyone can help??
Thanks! Just what I was looking for. On my system the security tab was not visible. You wrote to disable simple file sharing, here’s how [for future reference].
1 – Open Folder Options in Control Panel. (Click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.)
2 – On the View tab, under Advanced settings, clear the Use simple file sharing [Recommended] check box.
Brilliant! Brilliant! Bloody Brilliant! Saved my life…. Thanks X
Thanks a lot! You’ve save me a lot of time. 5*
No go! WinXP Pro SP3:
There is no check box for “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” in the owner tab. Am I missing something? Anyone?
I tried the same but its not working.. please help me.
I have my files back!! Very pleased. Thank you for your great guidelines.
u r the best, thanks so much
thanks man
it really helped to me
Thank you so much! I was afraid I was going to lose all of my files, but now they’re all fine!
THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX THANX
in the sharing network, the administrator has blocked certain privileges, i can have a look at those fils but i cant copy them nor open them.
it says access denied.
any solution guys?
Wow! Whew! It worked perfectly. THANK YOU!!
GREAT< After all the crap suggestions I found and tried it was a breath of fresh air to find this and have it work.
Next I must fix the no disk issue.
Thanks
ooooooo thanks a lot
I have a weird solution, so I am writing this is the hope that it will be useful so somebody. The solution described above did not work for me because when I right click the folder and choose “properties” there isn’t a “Security Tab”. This may be because I am not using “simple file sharing”. I have tried many things suggested on various web pages all to no avail. My problem is that I accidentally dragged and dropped one of my data folders to a folder with a really long gobbledegook name – this is probably some kind of system folder. Although I could see my data folder I could not open it or drag it back again to where it should be. I discovered by trial and error that any file/folder that I dragged and dropped to this particular place became similarly inaccessible. But I did finally stumble of a solution that worked!!! I created a new folder in the root of my C: drive and copied the gobbledegook folder to my new folder lock, stock and barrel, and bingo, all of my locked folders became accessible again – so I copied them back to where they should have been. I then copied the gobbledegook folder back to where it came from.
I have been,for hours, scouring the Microsoft site in an attempt to solve this problem, the google search too. By a lucky hid I got to this site and article and in 2 minutes solved the problem. Why in the Hell didn’t include XP Home in it’s fixes I’ll never know. Thanks again.
Ken Cook
This is brilliant, simple easy and it works, thanks to poster.
Thanks! I’ve been looking for a solution for this problem for ages. :) finally deleted those pesky folders that have random strings!
Thank you!
I have a problem like this, but at Windows 2003 where the server do not give me the ownership… and did the CHKDSK /F, but still not doing it… the Admin cannot get the file security info… so, if a Admin cannot, who can?
Who would have EVER thought that “Use Simple File Sharing” would cause such pain? You are the ONLY person I’ve found who pointed out this “simple” tick mark on the Tools->Folder Options->View-> Advanced Settings.
You rock, SIR!
Cheers->
Jimmy
I solved this problem by opening up the HD through an APPLE computer. This help me retrieve all my info off of disk.
This is good info but what about if you don’t have access to an admin acconut do you know how to take ownership through other methods.
Thanks, this really worked!!
This did work great! Now a question. If you put the hard-drive back in after you take ownership to run a repair do you have to relinquish ownership? (Windows XP) If yes, do you reverse the process?
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