I had a TrueCrypt encrypted external drive mounted on my Windows 7 64bit system and was trying to change the main folder permissions using Properties/Security so that other users would not be able to access the folder. However, I accidentally selected Administrators insted of Users and removed permissions. I aborted part way but not before I lost administrator permissions to thousands of folders/files. I still have permissions to the top level folder and some of the sub folders (the ones that didn't get changed). I have taken ownership via Advanced/Owner and tried to set permissions (selecting Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object) but get Access Denied errors for each folder and file. How can I restore administrative permissions to these folders/files?

Hi, Based on my test, if I delete administrators permission on a folder, I can re-add administrators group manually. Just login with administrator. Try to manually add administrators group on a folder: Properties---Security---edit---add Regards, Leo Huang Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Leo but I already tried that without success. I need to have ownership before I can add or change permissions. I tried taking ownership of the top level folder but that does not change ownership of sub-folders, I have to do each folder individually which if very tedious as I have many folder levels. Then I found that even after taking ownership of the folder I cannot open any of the files or change permissions for any of the files within a folder. However, I've discovered that if I copy and paste a folder to another location, or even to the same location, I can then see all the contents. This works for all sub-folders and files under the copied folder. Very strange but at least it is a way out of this mess. My plan is to simply make a fresh copy of the complete folder structure and, once I have verified I have everything, just delete the original. Lesson learned... be very careful not to remove administrator permissions!!

I’m glad to hear you find another way to add the admin permission. And everyone should be careful when remove the permission of a folder. Regards, Leo Huang Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.