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I have a folder that I am unable to delete.

I also cannot take ownership.

The hard drive is one I have previously used in another PC, if this makes any difference.

When trying to take ownership it says it cannot display the current owner and when trying to take ownership selecting any group says access denied.

I've also tried via the command line using takeown however this too says Access Denied.

Windows 7, and I am logged in as an administrator.

fileperms
  • 173

1 Answers1

18

  1. Download PsExec.exe from Sysinternals, this tool allows you to open a command prompt under LOCAL SYSTEM privileges: http://live.sysinternals.com/psexec.exe (put it in C:\temp)

  2. Open a command prompt with Administrator Privileges

  3. CD into C:\temp

  4. Run: psexec -s -i cmd.exe, this installs a temporary service which will open a command prompt under LOCAL SYSTEM account. The service will be automatically deleted after you close the screen (i.e. after EXIT)

  5. Run: TAKEOWN /F <folder> /R /D Y, this will set the Administrators group as owner, it also recurses into the folder

  6. To give the Administrators group full control rights, run ICACLS <folder> /grant administrators:F /T; the /T indicates that this operation is performed on all matching files and directories below the directories specified

CJBS
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Heebr
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