reset user permissions external drive

[bigukfan]

I have accidentally removed permissions for any user, including myself as the administrator, to access an external drive (letter J). This is a hard drive I use for backups of much of my data, including photos and documents. I have attempted to restore these by right clicking the drive, going to security and was expecting to see the permissions.

Instead I see the message "You must have read permissions to view the properties of this object". Clicking the advanced button takes me to a box with the drive letter at the top and under that the message Owner: Unable to display current owner. My only option is "Change". This takes me to a box with the taskbar name "Select User or Group".

I have no idea what I am doing. Does anyone have any ideas for me?  I have tried viewing the external drive on a laptop and again i don't have permission to view files. Grrrrr

[DaveLembke]

One trick is to create a user account on your system that matches the user account that the drive was initially set up under allowing for pass through NTFS authentication for privileges. The version of Windows I believe also has to be the same to trick it into not knowing that its connected as an external to protect itself. Windows does not allow for you to lock yourself out, as for at least 1 account has to remain with privileges to access the drive. If you were using a tool other than windows then I suppose you could lock yourself out. But there is a way to get access if you know the admin name and credentials.

Such as if this was originally created under Bob then create a user account for Bob and make him Admin of your desktop and give him same password as he originally had on the system that the drive came out of. Then logon as Bob and connect the drive. You might then be granted access to the data matching the drives NTFS profile permission privileges to that of the original account.

But for the fact that your trying to access this as an external, I am hoping your the original owner of the data that is on the drive that is protected. I have seen where people find a junk computer. Pull its drive and connect it as an external and then try to sniff around other peoples data that they were foolish to toss their drive away with the computer leaving their data at the will of whoever gets their hands on the drive. I tell all clients and friends to yank the hard drive before tossing away computers and save it or take a gun or sledge hammer to it before tossing it as scrap metal.

If this drive was found from someone else, I'd suggest formatting it and using it clean with your own data. There are ways of cracking NTFS data security on the drive, but I dont want to share that. The info shared up to this point assumes that your the original owner of the drive and so you know the original admin user for the computer that this drive originally came from. If you dont know the original admin of the drive, then you shouldnt be given privileges to dig into other peoples data.

Please dont take this personal with the response I posted, but if your data was in someone elses hands I would think that you too would not want someone online to show them how to access your personal info, so its good ethics that I can not disclose the hack to grant access if you dont know the original owner account that the data was created from. 

[bigukfan]

Dave,

Thanks for taking the time to help me. I purchased the external drive new to be used as a backup external drive, it was not the hard drive from another PC. I am the owner and the only person to save any data to it. It contain vast amounts of backed up data, hence the need to access it every day.

I was originally attempting to restrict access to it as my partner has a habit of deleting files. I right mouse clicked, went to properties and advanced and de-selected read, write and edit options. i thought this was for other users, but appears to have been all users, including me as administrator. I am not now able to access it myself.

I tried a system restore to the previous day but this did not affect the problem.

Following your advice, I have set up a new local account with admin privileges, having changed the name of my original account. The new account had the same name and password as my original account.  However, when I try to access the Drive called on my PC Local Disk (J:) I get the message "J:\ is not accessible. Access is denied ". When I right mouse click and go to properties I get the message "You do not have permission to view the object's security properties, even as administrator. To try taking ownership of the object which includes permission to view its properties, click Change above".

This is when I am presented with a box, I have attached a screen shot.

Any bright ideas of how I can restore my ability to access, read and write to my external backup drive?

Thank you for any help.

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

[patio]

So let's summarise...
You bought it used...
It has vast amounts of data...
You had allowed others access to the drive...
And we still do not know who's drive it is...

Clear so far ?

[bigukfan]

Hi Patio,

The external drive was purchased by me new from a shop in town. I am the only person who has used it from new. The data is mine, and i was always logged in as myself with administrator rights. It is the J drive on my PC. It is the J drive where I seem to have removed read, write and edit rights for all users. This is what I need to reverse.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

[patio]

Take Ownership...

[bigukfan]

Patio,

Again, thanks. One step forwards now.

Having followed your instructions I can now see all files on the J drive. However when I try to open any file I get the message I do not have access privileges. See the attached jpeg, it looks to me as though I have full access in all domains to add, delete, modify etc. Any great ideas on how I can gain access privileges?

[attachment deleted by admin to conserve space]

[patio]

Clik Apply...
You may wanna re-boot as well.

[bigukfan]

Patio,

Once again, thanks a million. Now back fully operational thankfully. Strange how much stress is generated by something so simple. How life has changed these days.

Thank you...

[patio]

You're more than Welcome...
Glad yer fixed up.