Using files on external hard drive
Hi there, I have plugged in the (Toshiba SATA) hard drive from a (4 week old) Sony Vaio into another (same model) Sony Vaio (via enclosure/USB cable) and, whilst I can open and read files ok, and have been able to delete some of them, I can't save amendments to files (e.g. in Excel) and it won't let me delete system files.
I have gone into Properties for the drive and changed it so that I have permission to modify all but 'special preferences' - and have tried doing the same in the Properties of individual files - but to no avail. When I try to save amendments to a file, it says that the file path doesn't exist (it does) or that the file is being used by another programme.
I have tried saving under another file name but it won't let me do this either - says I have to contact the administrator.
I'm assuming that, somehow, I need to get admin/access rights to the (now external) hard drive - but not been able to find out how to do this.
Any advice gratefully received. Cheers, freddy.- Moved byKen - Former Support Engineer Friday, July 03, 2009 12:43 PMMoved to proper category (From:Vista Assistant)
1 person got this answerI do too
Answers
- This really does sound like a Permissions issue and instructions on how to correct this has already been given.
Can you copy the data off of the External Drive and Format that Drive? That should clear up any "Permissions" issue.- Proposed As Answer byKen - Former Support Engineer Thursday, July 09, 2009 3:24 PM
- Unproposed As Answer byjollyfred57 Thursday, July 09, 2009 8:55 PM
- Marked As Answer byjollyfred57 Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:57 PM
All Replies
- Hi jollyfred57
Thank you for Posting on Microsoft Answers.
The below steps should allow you to take Ownership of the files/folders of the External Hard drive.
Note: Do "not" do this on the Internal Hard Drive where the Vista Installation is, at least not on the Root Level.
To take ownership and grant full control (or read write) permissions of files or folders in Windows Vista, do these steps.- In Windows Explorer window, locate the files or folders that you want to take ownership and grant or change full control or other access permissions.
- Right click on the file or directory, and then select Properties on the right click menu.
- Click on Security tab.
- Click on Advanced button at the bottom.
- In “Advanced Security Settings” dialog window, click on Owner tab.
- Here you will be able to see current owner (i.e. TrustedInstaller). To take ownership of the object, click on the Edit button. If UAC prompts for administrator’s password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.
- Additional “Advanced Security Settings” dialog will appear. Highlight the user name (for example, Administrators) in the Change owner to box that you want to assign as the owner for the object. Click OK to make the change.
- Back in original parent level “Advanced Security Settings” window, you will see the existing owner of the file or folder has changed to the user you just selected.
- Click OK button to exit this window.
- Click OK again to exit completely from the Properties window.
- The ownership is now belonged to user or user account that been selected. To assign necessary permissions to the user too, repeat step 1 to 3 to open the object’s Properties window again.
- In object’s Properties window, click on Edit button to change permissions. If UAC prompts for administrator’s password or permission to continue, enter the correct password or press Continue button.
- Highlight the Administrators or the user who wants the permissions on the object be changed in the “Group or user names” box.
If the user ID or group that you want to manage the permissions for the object doesn’t exist, click on Add button, and type in the user name or group name desired into the Enter object names to select box, and finish off by clicking on OK.
- In the Permissions for Administrators box below (or any other user name or group name you chose), click on “Full Control” under the “Allow” column to assign full access rights control permissions to Administrators group.
- Click “OK” twice when done.
Users can now do whatever you like to the files or directories processed as above. If you feel that above process is a little too long, and prefer to use command line to perform above process, then open an elevated command prompt as administrator, and issues the following commands:
For Files:
takeown /f file_name /d y
icacls file_name /grant administrators:FFor Folders or Directories (will perform action recursively):
takeown /f directory_name /r /d y
icacls directory_name /grant administrators:F /t
Please Post back and let us know if this helped to resolve the issue - thank you
Ken
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.- Proposed As Answer byKen - Former Support Engineer Wednesday, July 08, 2009 7:26 PM
- Unproposed As Answer byjollyfred57 Thursday, July 09, 2009 10:29 AM
Hi Ken, thanks for this. I have followed the instructions but still can't save to the external drive.
When I try to save a file to the external drive (which I've opened from the external drive) it says: file name or path does not exist; file is being used by another program; or workbook has same name as one currently open.
When I try to save the file with a different file name it says: you don't have permission to save in this location - contact the administrator to obtain permission.
The F:\ ownership I changed to was <myname-administrator>. I went back and changed this to <myname-user> - then tried both these ownerships in the Properties of the specific file I'm trying to change/save - with the same results as above.
On the Properites - Owner page it has the option 'Replace owner on subcontainers and groups' - I left this unchecked - would this affect it?
Also, would the fact that I have the same administrator and user name for the F:\ external drive and the C:\ internal drive be causing any conflict / confusion?
Also, when I try to save the file (in Excel), it automatically defaults to <Excel 97-2003 workbook> - if I change this to <Excel Workbook> it saves the file to the Documents folder on the main C:\ drive - without asking me - and which is not what I want.
I have also tried the above with a Word document - first it said the file was 'read only' - but it was not checked as 'read only' in the Properties box. I changed the Owner for this file, tried to save again and it said the drive is full, write protected or damaged. I tried to save with a new file name and got 'you don't have permission to save in this location - contact the administrator to obtain permission.'
Help ! Thanks again, freddy.Hello, Freddy
You will need to check that box to affect the entire drive, be sure that you are performing the steps on the root of the external hard drive.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
David
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.- Hi there David, I assigned ownership to Administrator, checked the box (as you said), pressed Apply and the system went off reassigning ownership to all files on the external drive except for about 30 - where I couldn't see the root so don't know which directory they were in. I tried opening/saving/renaming a file again and.... still won't let me.
So, I repeated the process with the ownership changed to user - still no luck.
Is there something else I should be changing in Properties/Security/Advanced - such as under Permissions, Auditing or Effective Permissions?
I have managed to delete some unwanted program files and data off the external drive - so at least it's getting slimmer - but anything to do with Windows or Microsoft it absolutely won't let me touch.
Would formatting the drive be an easier option - to get rid of all the software that might be conflicting with the C:\ drive - or would it still not let me write to it?
Incidentally, I had an interesting issue with McAfee which I'll make a new post for - my current PC's 60 day free trial period defaulted to the old PC's trial period after I connected the external drive - neither McAfee nor I can work out how this happened.... Looks like my old PC is resurrecting itself in the new one - spooky :-)
Thanks again, all help gratefully received as this is driving me bananas now. Cheers, freddy. Further to last posting (see below), I have copied files from the external drive to a speed stick and can access/edit/save using the speedstick - so I presume that the issue definitely lies with the permissions to write to the external drive.
Also, when I plugged in the external drive yesterday, I saw the Vista boot up screen appear briefly - could this mean that there's a password issue?Thanks in advance for your help, freddy.
- This really does sound like a Permissions issue and instructions on how to correct this has already been given.
Can you copy the data off of the External Drive and Format that Drive? That should clear up any "Permissions" issue.- Proposed As Answer byKen - Former Support Engineer Thursday, July 09, 2009 3:24 PM
- Unproposed As Answer byjollyfred57 Thursday, July 09, 2009 8:55 PM
- Marked As Answer byjollyfred57 Tuesday, July 14, 2009 4:57 PM
- Hi there, will try formatting the external drive and post back here what happens. Thanks, freddy.
- Hi DaGreenOne, no disrespect for unproposing 'mark as answer' - but feel I have to follow through your advice and get a +ve result before I can say it's an answer to the problem - will try your advice tomorrow and post back here. Thanks again, freddy.
- Freddy....where do we stand on this??
- Hi there, the external drive issue has been usurped by an AV/FW software issue which I'm working on. It's bed time here - so will look to format the drive in the morning. Thanks for the mail :-)
- Result. Thanks for your help, freddy.
- Hi Ken,
Even I am facing a similar issue. I went through the steps given by you and everything worked perfectly fine accept at Step 15 when I clicked on OK, I got some series of pop up error messages:
The Error messages are on Access Denied. Please note that am logged in as an Administrator.
Screenshot is given
Request your assistance.
Thanks,
JT
