Folders untouchable: owner unknown and cannot be changed

Janus Engstrøm

1/19/24, 12:36 PM

I have a parent folder, let's call it 'P', and in P resides 5 child folders. I am administrator of this non-domain joined server, but I cannot delete these child folder or in any other way alter them. I think my problem arose when I fooled around with folder permissions and probably have disabled inheritance, but I have no privileges on these 5 child folder, hence I cannot alter the permissions.

On the Security tab of a child folder's properties, I get "You must have Read permissions to view the properties of this object". If I continue to Advanced, it says "Owner: Unable to display current owner", and if I try to change this, I get "You do not have permission to view or edit this object's permission settings".

I have tried using takeown /F * on folder P run as an administrator, but I get "Access is denied" on each child folder. I have tried various icalcs commands on the on the child folders (also run as an administrator), but I get "Access is denied" on each child folder. I have run chkdsk /F and restarted to no avail.

How do I delete these 5 child folders?

201

2 + 1

file-permissions

authorization

windows-server-2016

Janus Engstrøm

1/19/24, 1:01 PM

Also tried running the takeown command using SysInternal's PcExec tool (as described here: https://theitbros.com/using-takeown-exe-command-to-take-ownership-of-file-or-folder/) to run the command as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, but I still get Access Denied on the 5 folder

Score:1

Server

Janus Engstrøm

1/25/24, 12:09 PM

Oh, the folders were in use! Using the Find-functionality of Process Explorer to search for services locking the folders, I found out that one of my programs had registered the folders on a Watcher-service, hence prohibiting me from accessing or deleting the folders. I had performed a server restart to clear any processes/services, but problem did not disappear - as my program of course was restarted as well!

So problem was two-fold: Both I had lost privileges on the folders and couldn't use takeown to correct this, as the folders were also in use.

+ 0

Score:0

Server

jfrmilner

1/20/24, 12:30 AM

Open an elevated cmd prompt (as Administrator) and run the following two commands, change C:\Bad to the relevant folder path. This will grant the Administrators group Ownership and restore inherited permissions.

takeown /A /R /F C:\Bad /D Y
icacls C:\Bad /Reset /T /C

+ 1

Janus Engstrøm

1/20/24, 7:49 AM

jfrmilner, thank you for your reply. I have tried takeown with your parameters, but I still get "INFO: Access is denied" for each of the 5 folders in question.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Folders untouchable: owner unknown and cannot be changed

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