Author Topic: Taking ownership of files ... confused, irritated & discombobulated (Read 12767 times)

barney · « **on:** October 16, 2011, 10:27 PM »

Folk,

Due to certain external power problems - suffice it to say that I cannot use language here to adequately describe the situation

- I'm in the throes [up] of moving data

. I have a couple of Fantom Green Drive USB drives, one (1) TB and two (2) TB. The two (2) TB disk, according to Hard Disk Sentinel has over 200 bad sectors - 271 at last count, but the count is climbing

. So I'm attempting to move data from the two (2) TB drive to the one (1) TB drive, which has a clean bill of health. (Yes, there is enough room

.) I'm down to two (2) directories, one of which has a number of .flv files I'd like to be able to keep.

I cannot move them. Regardless what I try, I'm continually told that I don't have permissions to do so. I cannot even copy 'em

. I've tried the standard methods - Win7 Ultimate, 64-bit - as well as a few I found on DC, but I simply cannot gain authority to move those files. Searches on the problem have yielded nothing of benefit.

So I'm turning to my ultimate resolution source, the members of Donation Coder. Halp!.

KynloStephen66515 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2011, 10:37 PM »

Have you tried CMD.exe?

copy C:\foldername\*.* d:\foldername\*.*

Failing that, what about uploading said files to a temp FTP account, then re-downloading them all (Its a chore I know, but certainly an option)

Also, you could try in Safe Mode, or using the default windows Admin account?

barney · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2011, 11:19 PM »

Command line doesn't work

. Basically, nothing is able to read the files, although I can see 'em in Explorer or MultiCommander

.

None of the software I have, e.g., RoboCopy, TeraCopy [shudder],WinMerge , and the like, can do anything. Whenever I attempt to assume ownership - again

- I'm refused. Sometimes the message I get is that I have to get permission from -
.
.
.
.
.
wait for it

.
.
.
.
.
- me $:-\$ !

I think I've tried safe mode, but I'll try again, just in case I missed something there.

The basic problem seems to be that nothing I have can read the files, but only in those two (2) directories. They have not been previously transferred, so that software is seeing ghost images.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #3 on:** October 16, 2011, 11:47 PM »

Stick the drive into a different machine?

I really don't think that this utility will do the job but it just might be worth a shot. Haven't used it myself, saw a reference to it recently when I was having a bit of trouble myself.

Could you back up the files from one drive but restore them to the other?

Target · « **Reply #4 on:** October 17, 2011, 12:14 AM »

use a rescue disk - pretty much any of them should allow you to access and move files

barney · « **Reply #5 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:27 AM »

@cranioscopical
Yep, I have it installed [Take Ownership from context menu], but it didn't do any good this time. It has worked before. just not this time

.
[Edit: same problem [apparently] on another box. I simply cannot access the files to do anything.]

@Target
Yeah, that's a last resort kinda thing, but it won't help me find out what caused the problem in the first place. I've gotten semaphore messages several times on this drive, but always cured with chkdsk - at least, so far. It's not that I cannot move the files at all - I think $:-\$ - with one of several recover CDs. But I really wanna learn, if not what happened, at least how to recover from it within the current OS

. Dumb, stupid, persistent - that's me

. Sometimes it even works

.

AbteriX · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:39 AM »

That are date files? No system? Which OS?

Try this:

- Right click the top folder -> Properties
- Security -> Advanced -> Edit...
- Change Owner too: >>> YOU (or administrators if you are an admin)
-> [X] Replace owner on subcontainers and objects
- OK , OK, OK -> Close Properties

- Right click the top folder -> Properties
- Security -> Edit...
- Select YOU -> [X] Full control

Perhaps we have to go via Advanced again, -> Change Permissions... -> YOU Full Control and "[X] Replace all child..." too

Target · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:48 AM »

Yeah, that's a last resort kinda thing, but it won't help me find out what caused the problem in the first place. I've gotten semaphore messages several times on this drive, but always cured with chkdsk - at least, so far. It's not that I cannot move the files at all - I think $:-\$ - with one of several recover CDs. But I really wanna learn, if not what happened, at least how to recover from it within the current OS . Dumb, stupid, persistent - that's me . Sometimes it even works .
-barney (October 17, 2011, 01:27 AM)

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with you on that one, but there's nothing wrong with that, so long as you recover the data.

You've been getting warnings and while it could totter along forever, it could just as easily go phhhht....

Once you've got a copy of the data you can spend as much time as you like trying to work out the why's and wherefore's. Maybe you'll tell us all and we'll learn something too (see, I'm really only thinking about myself

)

skwire · « **Reply #8 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:50 AM »

How about using just about any live Linux disc?

barney · « **Reply #9 on:** October 17, 2011, 02:15 AM »

@AbteriX
The files are mostly .flv, dates anywhere from a few years to a few weeks in the past. I've already been through the standard Win7 procedures to establish ownership. Sometimes it appears to complete, sometimes I get an alert. However, I still cannot access the files. I've gone through every Win7 routine, insofar as I am aware, to take ownership, as well as a few routines that aren't exactly in the Win7 manual. I can be reasonably certain it's not infection, although that's never a certainty. I've done this in regular and safe mode - I've also logged what I did, just in case it worked, just took me a few minutes to find the log

. So now I'm looking for other, probably non-standard, approaches to the problem.

@Target, skwire
Yea, the live CD thing is an option. But I don't want to do anything that might change the balance right now. I've had occasion to do this in the past and, while I was able to recover whatever it was at the time, I've also affected the disk architecture a time or three (3). If I do that, then I lose the opportunity to find out what's going on. Oh, I'm not gonna push it too long, but I'd really like to solve this internally, as it were $:-\$ . A problem that is avoided, or just disappears, is not resolved, it's just hidden away to pop up another day

.

Jibz · « **Reply #10 on:** October 17, 2011, 02:43 AM »

I assume you are booting from some other drive than the one with the problem. Potentially, it could be the part of the disk where the permissions for those folders are stored that is defective. On the other hand it could be something else like a defective cable too.

If it is an actual harddisk failure, you could try your luck with GetDataBack. The free download will allow you to check if you can read the files with it before you buy.

There are a number of such applications, the reason I suggest this one is that it has saved me in the past.

barney · « **Reply #11 on:** October 17, 2011, 03:08 AM »

Oh, no, I should have been more clear.

These are both external drives, USB connections. Both Fantom Green Drives, a 1 TB (the recipient) and a 2 TB (the recalcitrant donor)

.

I'll take a look at GetDataBack ... might be worth having for other occasions, as well

.

[Bleary-eyed, staggers off to bed <yawn />.]

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #12 on:** October 17, 2011, 06:40 AM »

One of the more interesting gotchas that tends to manifest at times like this is name length. If you have long folder names that accumulate into a really long path name, the copy/move operation will trip over it with a (rather erroneous) permissions error (e.g. The Whole (mess) really is the sum of its (name length) parts).

The work around is to try moving part of the subdirectory tree (out of the uber path) to the root of the same drive, which actually only updates the file pointers, so the files can then be accessed. Either that or try renaming the folders to shorten up the overall path name.

I've frequently tried moving the hole tree to see what/where it was failing, and then just renamed that target to "stitch" things back together. If the user had a really complicated (convoluted) file system. But if it's dying out of the gate - safe bet - the probled lies at the (assumed alphabetical) top of the folder structure. For this you can either try moving random folders one at a time, or sort the explorer folder view by something else and see if it'll get started (from that "angle") then.

barney · « **Reply #13 on:** October 17, 2011, 08:59 AM »

[Still bleary-eyed <Yawn />, but semi-awake again <yawn />.]

Yeah, that path too long beastie has bitten me more than once

. However, that particular nasty comes not into play in this instance, at least not by visible character count

. I've seen reference recently to software - SourceForge, I thimk - that addresses that issue, examines source(s) and target(s) for just that issue. TLPD maybe? Or am I extrapolating that from TL;DR? Memory fails.

Hm-m-m ... cannot access the files even to play w/VLC, but hadn't considered changing sort order ... don't think it'll do anything beneficial, but any straw ...

Nope, still get, "You require permission ..." for anything in the _vid directory

. And still get, "This is no longer located ...," for the _win directory

. Still cannot tell if this is a true Win permissions problem, or a problem with the drive, although I suspect the latter. Guess I'm gonna hafta try GetDataBack or one of its kin $:-\$ .

tslim · « **Reply #14 on:** October 17, 2011, 01:50 PM »

To rescue data on HDD with bad sector, the best tool to use is Norton Ghost. In your case I think you can get back almost all of your data, but you will need a pair of 1TB HDD. With the right setting, Ghost the whole HDD (the one with bad sectors) to a 1TB HDD then restore it to another 1TB HDD. That is it.

I have witness a 2 days non-stop backup of a bad sector HDD (its condition is much worse than yours) by Norton Ghost, the result is a full reclaim of all data... it is simply that powerful.

Deozaan · « **Reply #15 on:** October 17, 2011, 02:40 PM »

Trinity Rescue Kit helped me with a similar problem.

barney · « **Reply #16 on:** October 19, 2011, 02:44 PM »

Don't ya just hate when life interferes with what you really want to do

?

After a hiatus to restock the larder/fridge, I got back onto this.

Tried several live CDs - Trinity was the first, btw - but nothing could move those files

. I finally gave it up as a bad job, tried to reformat the drive. It would not format

! I no longer have anything that will do a low-level format: don't know that such would do any good, anyway, with today's HDs. So I'm just gonna chalk it up to a bad - really bad - drive and eat my losses. It is now in a suitable repository for disposal

.

I tried Trinity - I've had middlin' success with it in the past. Then I tried a Win live CD, on the theory that Windows would better understand what was going on, but the drive wouldn't be directly mounted to the OS - flakey, I know, but at this stage I was grasping any straw available. Then I tried several Linux distros that would run from CD w/o being installed.

Every one of those efforts gave me the same response, albeit couched differently depending upon the CD format I was using.

So I just decided to bite that particular bullet and, eventually, replace the drive.

Thanks, everyone, for your kind help and suggestions

.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #17 on:** October 19, 2011, 03:20 PM »

So I just decided to bite that particular bullet and, eventually, replace the drive.
-barney (October 19, 2011, 02:44 PM)

Bad luck but there comes a point when the game's not worth the candle, as you've realized.
Gets on your wick, doesn't it.
Had you talked to anyone at MicroNet?

40hz · « **Reply #18 on:** October 19, 2011, 04:58 PM »

Every one of those efforts gave me the same response, albeit couched differently depending upon the CD format I was using.

So I just decided to bite that particular bullet and, eventually, replace the drive.

-barney (October 19, 2011, 02:44 PM)

I've had that happen to me. Your drive may not be shot. Most times it's just the partition table and/or MBR that are FUBARed. It's very likely there's just some digital garbage lurking in a critical area that is preventing a reformat.

Before you trash it, download a copy of Darik's Boot & Nuke. It's a tiny download. Fits on a floppy.

Boot using that, and select the quick option - or just hit enter. (If you just hit enter it will take longer.)

Let it run until it hits at least the 15% complete mark. You don't need to let it run to completion. You just want to be sure the partition table and lowest tracks are completely wiped.

Now load up a copy of gparted from any of those live Linux CDs you've got and create a new partition table. After that you can partition/format the drive however you want using NTFS. If you can do this you're half way home. Think of this as the test phase. I like gparted because it can do this part quicker and more reliably than Windows usually can.

Now when you go to reinstall windows, first do a fix master boot record on it (FIXMBR) and then do a quick format on each partition when you reinstall Windows. This may not be absolutely necessary since it's redoing what we just did with gparted. But we're using Microsoft's utilities this time around just to be 100% sure there's nothing going on Windows doesn't understand. When running Windows you want to stick with their setup tools as much as possible.

In 9 cases out of 10, this fixes the problem.

Luck!

barney · « **Reply #19 on:** October 19, 2011, 06:54 PM »

Oops!

Sorry, I was unclear again

.

This was - emphasis on the was - not an OS drive, just a USB external storage drive. All the diagnostics I have said it had bad sectors, and the bad sector count was growing. Considering the power problems I've had recently, I'm inclined to believe the drive really was [going] bad. MTBF is really only an empirical average, and all indications were that this drive wasn't paying attention to averages

.

Haven't tried the Boot & Nuke thing yet, but like you, I'm kinda partial to gparted. However, when I tried that to see if I could recover the drive - in case I was getting faulty SMART data - it couldn't do anything to ameliorate the situation.

So I dismantled the drive housing - I'm a string-saver when it comes to mounting screws and such

- and will dispose of it, prolly, at Best Buy, as that's the only place locally that handles that kind of thing.

Anyway, the ordeal is past ... I just have to decide whether to get another Fantom

.

barney · « **Reply #20 on:** October 19, 2011, 07:09 PM »

Sorry cranioscopical I left you out of that last one.

Yeah, I did talk to a tech - who bumped me up to another, presumably {higher|more qualified|more patient}, tech. They both agreed that w/o their having physical access to the drive, I should probably go with the SMART indicators.

Hell, the drive is 2-3 years old, has been under power that whole time, and there have been some rather significant power issues. (Even a UPS can't block EMF from a lightning strike

. And that was next door, not here

.)

Anyhoo, this saga has come to a conclusion. I considered a candle-lit wake, but in the end I just dumped it unceremoniously in the bad parts - destroy box, opened another beer, and started shopping for a replacement online

.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #21 on:** October 19, 2011, 09:30 PM »

This was - emphasis on the was - not an OS drive, just a USB external storage drive.

...

So I dismantled the drive housing -
-barney (October 19, 2011, 06:54 PM)

Stop! ...God I'm retarded...

It's a USB Drive ... So if the USB controller goes poof (and they tend to) ... It can/will make the drive (which is actually perfectly fine) appear to be torched. I just went through this a few months back with a clients 1TB backup drive. In the externel USB case it appeared to be for all the world completely, unreadably, fried. However.... Out of the case connected directly to a computer ... It worked perfectly. I'm still using it.

Take another run at it now that it's out ... You might get lucky.

barney · « **Reply #22 on:** October 19, 2011, 09:53 PM »

I wish. I have a little goody I bought recently - couple of months ago? - that'll let me power up and read an otherwise disconnected HD. Same response. I'm willing to believe it could have been a bad USB controller on the Fantom, but less willing to accept two (2) (or more) failing at the same time. Yeah, I know coincidence exists - but that doesn't mean I have to believe in it

.

tslim · « **Reply #23 on:** October 23, 2011, 12:58 AM »

This was - emphasis on the was - not an OS drive, just a USB external storage drive.

...

So I dismantled the drive housing -
-barney (October 19, 2011, 06:54 PM)

Stop! ...God I'm retarded...

It's a USB Drive ... So if the USB controller goes poof (and they tend to) ... It can/will make the drive (which is actually perfectly fine) appear to be torched. I just went through this a few months back with a clients 1TB backup drive. In the externel USB case it appeared to be for all the world completely, unreadably, fried. However.... Out of the case connected directly to a computer ... It worked perfectly. I'm still using it.

Take another run at it now that it's out ... You might get lucky.
-Stoic Joker (October 19, 2011, 09:30 PM)

Ha! Ha!
You have made me recall an incident while I was a teenager...

back to the time before Win95, I was using floppy drive. I remember I have angrily thrown into my dustbin a dozen or more floppy disks and only find out later it was my floppy drive that went out of alignment... it simply can't read any disk...