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Locked myself out of D drive by changing permissions, unable to reset permissions or restore "Security" tab in "Properties".

Anonymous
2018-03-23T12:38:56+00:00

I have an Acer Travelmate; Windows 7, 32 Bit.   The hard drive has two parts: "C" Drive is programs etc, "D" Drive is all my personal data.  I wanted to isolate the Guest account from my data which is on "D" drive so went into the Permissions for "D" drive and ticked “Deny” access in all boxes, expecting it to only affect one account and not my account which I thought was the Administrator.

"C" Drive is fine but when "D" drive is clicked on, I get:   “D:\ is not accessible Access Denied”.

When I try to change the permissions by clicking on "D" drive "Properties" the "Security" tab is missing.

I have tried to replace the Security Tab by opening the Administrator Account and in that account by typing “gpedit.msc” in the search box, navigating to Local Group Policy Editor/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Explorer/Settings/ Remove Security Tab (double click)/ select radio button next to Disabled/OK.

Having done that, I closed the window, rebooted and checked in all user accounts but Security Tab is a still missing and D Drive is still Acess Denied.

Does anyone know how to undo what I did and get back the Security Tab in “D” drive and or reverse the Permissions on "D"drive?

The data on D Drive is backed up but I would like to be able to use the hard drive.

Thank you in advance.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-03-23T13:05:29+00:00

    You need to seize ownership of your folders then give yourself full access rights - see here:

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727008.aspx

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-24T11:46:10+00:00

    Back to stone age technology with your screenshots?

    I'm puzzled.

    While in normal mode, using Steps 1 . . 5 from my recipe, do you get the same response when specifying individual folder names, e.g.

    takeown  /F  "D:\My Documents"  /R

    xcacls  "D:\My Documents"  /T  /C /grant everyone:F

    The second command is different from the one I used before.

    Frederik Long,

    Thank you for your patience and advice.

    I think I entered the commands correctly but the system still doesn't like it!

    The screenshot is below.

    Kind regards,

    Ant.o

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-24T13:26:53+00:00

    Frederik Long,

    When I changed the permissions in D Drive, I had a feeling I was in uncharted territory (for me) so I took a screenshot of the permission changes before hitting the OK button to apply the changes.

    I wrongly assumed that the Administrator would not be included in the permission changes in the left window "Permissions for DATA (D:).

    I hope that seeing what I did might give you a clue as to how to undo it!

    My daughter tried to restore permissions before I contacted this forum. I am not sure exactly what she did but she may have tried to rename the D Drive partition of the Hard drive to regain control (which didn't work!) and not changed the name back correctly afterwards.

    I hope this helps.

    Kind regards,

    Anthony Gray

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-23T13:42:41+00:00

    OK, let's take out the heavy artillery.

    1. Log on under an admin account
    2. Create a desktop shortcut for cmd.exe.
    3. Right-click it, then left-click Run as Administrator.
    4. Accept the challenge.
    5. Type these commands exactly and press Enter after each:

    takeown  /f  D:\  /R

    cacls  D:\  /t  /c  /g everyone:F

    (say Yes when asked "Are you sure") 6. Give yourself the desired access to these folders but knock out everyone else. Do NOT use "deny access" - it has unexpected consequences!

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-03-23T13:25:07+00:00

    You need to seize ownership of your folders then give yourself full access rights - see here:

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx

    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727008.aspx

    Frederik Long, Thank you for your prompt reply and advice to take ownership of the files.

    Your first link describes how to reset the Security tab in Properties.

    I have already said that when I click on Properties there is NO Security Tab.

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753659.aspx  is therefore not the solution.

    The second link looks complicated, butI don't think it addresses the problems I have described.

    I will read it and try again later.

    Regards, Ant.o

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