Screwed-up NTFS permissions - How do I delete this?

[ctmagnus]

A while ago, I downloaded a file (http://www.hddsettlement.ca/ IDESEARCH109.ZIP) (space added to protect the innocent) from www.hddsettlement.ca. However, the NTFS permissions on the two files the zip contains are screwed-up and as such, I cannot delete them after unzipping them on an XP Home machine. Is there anything I can do to be able to delete the files? I have full admin priveleges on the PC containing the file.

[OSUKid7]

Have you tried system restore?

[ctmagnus]

No. It's in the Shared Documents folder, so it wouldn't get erased if I did a restore.

I'm thinking CACLS from the command line, but it denies me access.

[maximus]

Remove the drive, plug it into another PC as slave, delete the file ?

[KimVette]

Boot to safe mode
Log in as Administrator
Go the properties for that folder
Go to the Security tab
Click the Advanced button
Go to the owner tab
Make sure one of the owners is {machinename}\Administrator
Go to Permissions tab
Select Administrator
Click Edit
Check Full Access
Click OK
Keep clicking OK until you get back out
Delete the file


If this does not work PM me and I will provide instructions which you will have to type at a shell prompt (e.g., a DOS session)

[KimVette]

Remove the drive, plug it into another PC as slave, delete the file ?

That makes two assumptions:


The user has a second computer
The filename is not messed up


Along that vein though, here is an alternative. If you know even an inkling of any *nix variant (I am not including OS/X in this category because most Mac users go through the dumbed-down GUI and never see bash or tcsh ;)) you could boot from a Knoppix CD, drop to a shell prompt and chown/chmod then rm the file from there, or if the filename is nonprintable characters, you can use Midnight Commander.

[ctmagnus]

Remove the drive, plug it into another PC as slave, delete the file ?

That makes two assumptions:


The user has a second computer
The filename is not messed up



I mounted the share as a drive on my Win2k system and can manipulate the file system from a command prompt on it, so removing the drive and plugging it into another computer isn't really necessary.

The filename is idesearch.exe, so no issues there.

Along that vein though, here is an alternative. If you know even an inkling of any *nix variant (I am not including OS/X in this category because most Mac users go through the dumbed-down GUI and never see bash or tcsh ;)) you could boot from a Knoppix CD, drop to a shell prompt and chown/chmod then rm the file from there, or if the filename is nonprintable characters, you can use Midnight Commander.

Good call! I have a knoppix CD around here somewhere. I just need to find it. This'll be the easiest method.

[ctmagnus]

Boot to safe mode
Log in as Administrator
Go the properties for that folder
Go to the Security tab
Click the Advanced button
Go to the owner tab
Make sure one of the owners is {machinename}\Administrator
Go to Permissions tab
Select Administrator
Click Edit
Check Full Access
Click OK
Keep clicking OK until you get back out
Delete the file


The Security Tab stuff didn't work (wouldn't let me add anyone to the owners) but I was able to set Everyone to all permissions in safe mode. The file is Gone!

Thank-you! :D

[Janak Parekh]

Along that vein though, here is an alternative. If you know even an inkling of any *nix variant (I am not including OS/X in this category because most Mac users go through the dumbed-down GUI and never see bash or tcsh ;)) you could boot from a Knoppix CD, drop to a shell prompt and chown/chmod then rm the file from there, or if the filename is nonprintable characters, you can use Midnight Commander.
I'm not sure this is a good idea. At least as of linux kernel 2.4, NTFS write support was strictly experimental and known to cause weird errors. Admittedly, I haven't tried 2.6 (and I don't know what the latest Knoppix uses, either).

--janak

[KimVette]

I'm not sure this is a good idea. At least as of linux kernel 2.4, NTFS write support was strictly experimental and known to cause weird errors. Admittedly, I haven't tried 2.6 (and I don't know what the latest Knoppix uses, either).

--janak

FWIW, I have used NTFS support in Linux to recover data (even back when one had to hack^H^H^H^Hpatch the kernel by hand to give the Linux kernel NTFS support) when Windows 2000 refused to even enumerate the volume, and have had a near-100% success rate. I just rescued a customer's deathstar drive (100% successful recovery from a dying thinkpad using Linux, after WinXP, Win2K, and Win2K3 all refused to mount the drive. I'd risk saying that the Linux code for NTFS volumes is at least as good as Microsoft's, especially since it can mount drives that Windows will refuse to even acknowledge. ;)

[Janak Parekh]

FWIW, I have used NTFS support in Linux to recover data (even back when one had to hack^H^H^H^Hpatch the kernel by hand to give the Linux kernel NTFS support) when Windows 2000 refused to even enumerate the volume, and have had a near-100% success rate.
I don't doubt the quality of the read support. I've just read some horror stories about actually writing to an NTFS partition. That said, it wasn't recently, so perhaps the support has improved. I for one will be glad when the NTFS write support is officially-supported; and now that MS isn't moving to WinFS for Longhorn, it might actually be useful. ;)

--janak