Change permission settings on seagate external drive and cannot access

[TWPHOTO]

Hello,
Need some help here please. I have a Seagate 250 Hard Drive (External) and I went into properties, security, and change permission settings to admin...the system did its thing and now I try to access the files I can only acces files created using this same computer. All files that were stored from previous computers to this drive, gives a cannot acces due to permission message. I went in and tried changing back permissions but I cannot do this to all the folders at once and can only do it one file at a time. How do I coprrect this big mistake...help

 

[ss202sl]

Can you take ownership of the folders and files?

 

[TWPHOTO]

I can take ownership of the folders and then for each folder there are hundreds of files and I have to be taking ownership of them one at a time for it to open. Its a 250g drive and it has 9 gigs of free space. This could take weeks trying to open each file one by one...

 

[ronintexas]

You should be able to select all folders in the root of the drive, and do this "including sub-folders".

 

[TWPHOTO]

I know that is probably a ABC task for most folks here, but I am like that kid who had good intentions but did something dumb. I have no idea what that means..I went to the first or main folder which I call "BaCKUP" which all other folders are located in, I tried doing the permission change to everyone from that, accepted ownership with that main folder and thought it would take care of everything...no such luck. Still getting same message...I accept ownership one by one and the file opens one at a time as I accept. If you can please explain how to do what you are suggesting.
I am truly in panic mode, I have a deadline for work and I truly need help..

 

[ronintexas]

Choose the BaCKUP folder by right clicking, click on "propterties" go to the security tab, click the owner tab, then click the "edit" button. There is a checkbox near the bottom "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects". Put a check there...and change the owner. It will replace it in all items then.

 

[TWPHOTO]

I right click and then select Properties then select security but there is no owner box, there is a box which list everyone, administrator, etc and so on so I selected everyone click Edit but I do not see a box at the bottom which gives me the option to select a check box "replace owner...Am I doing something wrong..

 

[ronintexas]

What version of Windows are you using?

 

[TWPHOTO]

Windows 7

 

[ronintexas]

1. Right click folder, choose properties.
2. Click security tab.
3. Click advanced button.
4. Click owner tab.
5. Click Edit button.
6. Choose the user to change ownership to - and place check mark in check box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, then click ok.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

 

[TWPHOTO]

Can I just say you are a life saver and I am very grateful to you for taking the time to assist with this. You literally saved my job and I hope I can make it up by paing it forward. Thanks again, it fixed my problem.

 

[TWPHOTO]

Best answer selected by TWPHOTO.

 

[diabedo]

ronintexas
1. Right click folder, choose properties.
2. Click security tab.
3. Click advanced button.
4. Click owner tab.
5. Click Edit button.
6. Choose the user to change ownership to - and place check mark in check box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, then click ok.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

If "ronintexas's" solution still does not fix your problem you can always use CMD prompt to fix this quite easily.

1. Open Run and type CMD and hit enter (make sure you do NOT run CMD in administrator mode, these steps will not work otherwise.)
2. Enter DISKPART
3. Enter LIST VOLUME
4. Enter SELECT VOLUME # ("#" is the volume number in which you need to work on)
5. Enter ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
6. If step 5 doesn't work instead try ATTRIBUTES DISK VOLUME READONLY

And that should allow you to alter the drive as you see fit.
I hope this helps anyone with this problem.

 

[Christopher Van Gelder]

ronintexas
1. Right click folder, choose properties.
2. Click security tab.
3. Click advanced button.
4. Click owner tab.
5. Click Edit button.
6. Choose the user to change ownership to - and place check mark in check box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, then click ok.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

If "ronintexas's" solution still does not fix your problem you can always use CMD prompt to fix this quite easily.

1. Open Run and type CMD and hit enter (make sure you do NOT run CMD in administrator mode, these steps will not work otherwise.)
2. Enter DISKPART
3. Enter LIST VOLUME
4. Enter SELECT VOLUME # ("#" is the volume number in which you need to work on)
5. Enter ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
6. If step 5 doesn't work instead try ATTRIBUTES DISK VOLUME READONLY

And that should allow you to alter the drive as you see fit.
I hope this helps anyone with this problem.

Attributes disk volume readonly -- does not work

 

[nelsons]

Thank you for taking time to help us less tech savvy people in the world! I decided to try to recover files from my dead computer by goggling how to take out the hard drive and run it from an external reader...got that part and once I plugged it in I was so excited till I didn't have access to my files! Your post SAVED me and my sanity if I would have done them one by one!!

 

[cabailey79]

For a simpler approach... browse to your central drive under your network
Right click and map network drive on the usb1-share1 (or your name for your usb connected drive)
map this drive as whatever letter you choose
click the connect using different credentials box
when the new box comes up, select use different credentials
type in "nobody" as the username and no password
check the remember box if you wish.
Now you can read and write to this drive (even though properties still shows read only in windows)
Crazy, right! but simple!!!!

 

[bloom4cats]

I have had this external USB drive plugged into Seagate Central and for months I haven't been able to write anything to any existing folders and it was driving me crazy. The below form cabailey79 worked and you are right - totally simple. Not sure why I didn't try this. I kept trying to use the Seagate credentials (Seagate-central\username). Wow, I could hug you. Thanks!!

For a simpler approach... browse to your central drive under your network
Right click and map network drive on the usb1-share1 (or your name for your usb connected drive)
map this drive as whatever letter you choose
click the connect using different credentials box
when the new box comes up, select use different credentials
type in "nobody" as the username and no password
check the remember box if you wish.
Now you can read and write to this drive (even though properties still shows read only in windows)
Crazy, right! but simple!!!!