Can you remove NTFS permissions from a hdd when the OS that created them no longer functions?
to be more paticular I am running xp home when I boot into safe mode and try to take ownership of the files nothing happens
Use Linux to copy the files?
The answer is yes, you can. I do this fairly regularly when I reinstall Windows on my C: partition but leave the D: partition alone (the end result being anything in the Recycle Bin that's on D: loses its ownership, and the file owner becomes a unique ID string, something like S-x-x-xx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx, where all the X's are numbers).
Changing the ownership back is simple. This is for XP: run Windows Explorer, choose Tools, Folder Options, View tab, then *uncheck* "Use simple file sharing". Next, click Properties on the folder/drive you wish to adjust ownership of. Click the Security tab, then click the Advanced button. Next, click the Owner tab. You'll be shown who currently owns the folder/drive, and who you can reassign it to. Click the username of the account you want to change the folder to, and at the bottom, check the box labelled "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". Then click Apply, and approve whatever warning box it gives you.
Enjoy.
Dwedit wrote:
Use Linux to copy the files?
What?
if your planning on witching an OS its easier to just share the hole drive under newwork share from the old OS before you switch over and then ownership automatically terns off, or gets set to everyone
I finally did get most files unlocked but a few I guess are corrupted
NTFS drivers available for Linux don't create or respect the security permissions.
Dwedit wrote:
NTFS drivers available for Linux don't create or respect the security permissions.
- Last time I checked, writes are denied.
You must have checked before NTFS-3G came out. Since then, NTFS on Linux has been full read/write. I think the Ubuntu or Knoppix liveCDs may even automount NTFS as read/write now, but I'm not sure about that. If they don't, you just need to manually mount it.
I do know they refuse to write to an NTFS volume marked as "Dirty" to encourage you to run chkdsk on it before you mess with it, but you can still override that.