W7 adiministrator issues

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Last response: November 27, 2012 1:30 PM in Windows 7

sargan

November 24, 2012 6:09:14 PM

After HDD failure ... clean install of W7 Ultimate 64b on C drive .. (SSD)

Trying to install programs to D drive (less frequntly used programs) I get error:

"You don't have access to write to install directory"

or "Installer has insufficient privileges to access the directory"

My account is the administrator account and also at this point was the only account ....
I then tried creating a seperate administrator account (.. logged in with that and same errors )

Also from elevated command prompt ran "net users administrator /active:yes"

Still same errors.

I know usual answer is right click and run as administartor ... when I 'right click' I don't get that option.

More about : adiministrator issues

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hang-the-9

Windows 7 Authority

November 25, 2012 1:36:49 AM

Take ownership of the other drive directories.

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sargan

November 25, 2012 2:13:46 PM

How do I do that ? ... as the only account I assumed (it seems wrongly) I was owner of HDD's

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jarotech

November 25, 2012 8:50:33 PM

Hi, to take ownership of a drive follow these instructions on this site.

http://www.caspianit.co.uk/how-to-take-ownership-of-a-d...

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hang-the-9

Windows 7 Authority

November 27, 2012 1:30:26 PM

sargan said:

How do I do that ? ... as the only account I assumed (it seems wrongly) I was owner of HDD's

You are only the owner of the drive (technically only the directories and files) that you re-installed Windows on. The other existing files have the same rights they had before, which is the accounts on the old Windows installation.

The way Windows security works is that once you delete a user, even if you create a new one with the same name, it's NOT the same account and needs to be given rights again. Think of it that way. You bought a house with an existing locked room (house = Windows, locked room = your old drive). Even though you are the new owner of the house, you don't automatically have the key used on that locked room, you have to get it from the old owner or make a new key (take ownership of the files).

It's called the SID (security ID) for the accounts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Identifier