Need Help Accessing a Folder

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2007-07-26 02:15pm

The long and short of it is I've got a folder I can't access, and I need to. Any time I try to delete, move, open or do anything to it I get the error message that it's not accessible and access is denied.

Some may remember a while back I tried a reformat to try and correct a problem I was having, turns out the problem was nothing to do with my computer, but anyway, this folder I can't access is a profile folder from before the reformat, so it's pretty safe to say that it cocked up, especially since after I did the reformat something I couldn't account for was still taking up over half my HDD space, and I think it has got to be this profile folder I can't access, because there is no where else on the drive taking up anywhere near the amount of space I'm missing, even using Treesize it can only find about 40GB being used.

I haven't really looked too much into trying to fix this until now, because I didn't need to, I still had enough space on my HDD provided I used my external HDD for music, videos, etc. But at the moment I've got 14GB left, and it's not going to last much longer, and if I can't find and free up this nearly 100GB I'm going to have to replace the HDD which I really can't afford right now, so any help will be much appreciated.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-07-26 02:39pm

The most obvious (possibly quickest) solution that comes to mind is get a Live Linux distro and delete or move the folders from within the Linux OS. That way any conflicts with Windows should be a non-issue. Make sure you defrag and scandisk the hard drive beforehand though, that could be another problem.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-07-26 05:03pm

Use an administrator account to adjust the permissions.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2007-07-26 05:18pm

How would I do that? Because the account I'm using is an admin account and I can't see any way to do it.

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2007-07-26 05:58pm

Dorsk 81 wrote:How would I do that? Because the account I'm using is an admin account and I can't see any way to do it.

Turn on advanced sharing options (or turn off simple sharing and security, I forget which it's called) in your folder options.

Then, take over ownership of the folder and enable recursion.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2007-07-26 06:11pm

I can't see anything like that in Folder Options. I've tried dragging it into the Shared Documents folder but can't, like I said, I just get the Access Denied message. I also tried going into Properties of the folder and ticking the Share this folder on the network box and all that, but up pops the Access Denied error again.

Phantasee · Post by **Phantasee** » 2007-07-26 06:17pm

It's the last option under the view tab. Use simple sharing or something like.

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2007-07-26 06:39pm

Nope, not there. The last option I've got is "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items".

Post by **Beowulf** » 2007-07-26 06:45pm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874 try the instructions in there?

Dorsk 81 · Post by **Dorsk 81** » 2007-07-26 07:52pm

I know where it was telling me to look, but it just wasn't there, not a single item about sharing, simple or otherwise. I've got it now though, going through Safe Mode opened up some extra options in properties under the security tab and I was able to transfer ownership.

Thanks to everyone for the help.