Dealing with Permissions issues in Vista

Atreyou40

New Member
READ THIS FIRST:

Suggesting the solution to my problem is "Run as Administrator" is not the solution. I appreciate it if you know this, but I am familiar with that, have TRIED that, and it is NOT the solution to my problem.

THE PROBLEM:
I have a 1TB external USB drive.

It shows 210GB free

Now, when I try to add anything new to it, I get a disk space error.

Whether it is downloading from Rapidshare, copying from my "C" drive, etc. The "out of disk space" message was the first indication something was wrong. I know it is mostly music on the HD. The reason I know it is a permissions/administration problem is due to the fact that of the 4 base folders I have on the external drive, when I view the properties, only TWO of the folders report a file size (one 35G, one 40G) while my music folders (spanish and English you know) report ZERO BYTES.

Now - I can browse those folders, and I can play the files, and even delete individual files, but I cannot delete a directory tree (I can only delete the last subdirectory on up).

I checked the security tab for the affected files, and it shows that Administrator accounts have full control of those folders - but there is no checkbox under "special permissions".

I even ran explorer.exe as administrator, and still could NOT get the filesize or number of files in my "musica" directory.

One other peculiar issue that has come up - the recycle bin has 47Gigs of garbage in it that WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT GO AWAY. It doesn't matter if I "empty recycle bin" delete the $Recycle folder, manually try to delete the items in the folder (as administrator or the file owner).

On the advice of someone else on this very forum I ran the SCF. It did find errors and as soon as notepad pulls it together, I'll try to get those for you. The logfile dates back to July 1 of this year, and is 28MB in size. That's a lot of log messages.

After pruning only the relevant logs which started at 11:47 my time this morning...

2009-10-06 11:45:58, Info CBS Loaded Servicing Stack v6.0.6002.18005 with Core: C:\Windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft
-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6002.18005_none_0b4ada54c46c45b0\cbscore.dll
2009-10-06 11:45:59, Info CSI 00000001@2009/10/6:16:45:59.096 WcpInitialize (wcp.dll version 0.0.0.5) called (stack
@0x63d38a50 @0x6a5a854e @0x6a5863a1 @0xb1392 @0xb1ed4 @0xb17cb)

and ended with this message in my command box:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of th
em.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

This is pretty much intolerable. It's a blatant OS issue, that has nothing to do with my computer or hard drive, and Microsoft won't support it. So my trimmed logfile is 797k. I can't read that but I did try the beginning and lo and behold I got some messages indicating what can't be repaired:

2009-10-06 11:46:10, Info CSI 00000008 Hashes for file member \SystemRoot\WinSxS\msil_mmcfxcommon_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_5030aedd7affd31c\MMCFxCommon.dll do not match actual file [l:30{15}]"MMCFxCommon.dll" :
Found: {l:32 b:H3n6SiyhUI8NuWGE6ThGtRlNP6khgYJ5BY7ilUtS8CY=} Expected: {l:32 b:Kh/ZL6vPfFjVi3TgH8MwyWo8lJhd1wX49BQ3InKbkEw=}
2009-10-06 11:46:10, Info CSI 00000009 [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:30{15}]"MMCFxCommon.dll" of MMCFxCommon, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_MSIL (8), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2009-10-06 11:46:11, Info CSI 0000000a Hashes for file member \SystemRoot\WinSxS\msil_mmcfxcommon_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6000.16386_none_5030aedd7affd31c\MMCFxCommon.dll do not match actual file [l:30{15}]"MMCFxCommon.dll" :
Found: {l:32 b:H3n6SiyhUI8NuWGE6ThGtRlNP6khgYJ5BY7ilUtS8CY=} Expected: {l:32 b:Kh/ZL6vPfFjVi3TgH8MwyWo8lJhd1wX49BQ3InKbkEw=}
2009-10-06 11:46:11, Info CSI 0000000b [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:30{15}]"MMCFxCommon.dll" of MMCFxCommon, Version = 6.0.6000.16386, pA = PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE_MSIL (8), Culture neutral, VersionScope = 1 nonSxS, PublicKeyToken = {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}, Type neutral, TypeName neutral, PublicKey neutral in the store, hash mismatch
2009-10-06 11:46:11, Info CSI 0000000c [SR] This component was referenced by [ml:38{19},l:36{18}]"Windows Foundation"
2009-10-06 11:46:12, Info CSI 0000000d Repair results created:

I don't know what that means specifically, but my pathetic public school education does allow me to interpret "Cannot repair member file" as something negative.

OH - and I "ran as administrator" the cmd box.

Anyway, I'm absolutely furious that I can't simply log in as root, or chmod -R 777 G:\ and just get on with life, but I guess that's Microsoft for you.

Does anyone have any clue what on earth I can do to resolve this - even if I purchase another HD and copy these files to it, I KNOW that all of their retarded windows permissions issues will go with them. I am at my wits end.

Thanks for reading my mini-novel.
 

My Computer

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel Neo
    Memory
    2GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intergrated Intel Graphics
    Sound Card
    Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    10.1
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 800
    Hard Drives
    160GB
    PSU
    Power Adapter
    Case
    It's special, it flips open :)
    Keyboard
    Acer
    Mouse
    Touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Down: 16mb/s Up: 1.6mb/s
    Other Info
    I killed my HP Laptop :'(
Thanks for the quick reply - I haven't tried what you suggested basically because I'm too busy TOTALLY FREAKING OUT

:mad: WORDS OF WARNING!!!!! :cry:

If you do run SCF, and there are legitimate permissions issues that Windows can't fix, Windows will solve the problem by removing 5 years of neatly organized, labeled and collected images. I had over 80GB of Images collected from many forums, file sharing services, etc... I had literally tagged and organized all of them using ACD_See. Many are backed up on optical media - ~60% but they are not organized, categorized or anything like that. I stil had about 10% unfiled and those loose files were spared. But after running SCF - EVERY SINGLE ONE of my first level sub-directories has vaporized. Gone. Sayonara. Adios. I'm gonna go swallow some razor blades.

I'm going to implement the universal Windows fix for everything (reboot, reconnect, and PRAY) and I hope my directories reappear long enough for me to back them up and then smash this hard drive into a million pieces, not because I think there's anything wrong with it, but because I need to let of some steam.

If you all are interested I'll update complete with photos of the demolished HD.

And if you're wondering what it used to look like:
G:\Visual\
G:\Visual\IMG
G:\Visual\MOV
G:\Visual\IMG\Family
G:\Visual\IMG\Personal
G:\Visual\IMG\Internet Forums
G:\Visual\IMG\House
and many subdirectories of those

Now, it looks like

G:\Visual\IMG and all of the individual unfiled images.

This totally....*can't use the words I really wanna use here* is below average.
 

My Computer

OH. MY. GOD.

ALL THE MUSIC IS GONE TOO. The base directory is there, but none of the subfolders. Fortunately I have a mirror of those files.

It is actually ok. For now. And the missing files are still there - the drive still shows 210G free, even though I can't see anything, so while I'm hyperventilating, I'm not panicing.
 

My Computer

AYF

you might want to try an undelete app.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron E 1405
    CPU
    [email protected]
    Memory
    4 gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated intel 945
    Sound Card
    integrated
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    300 gig internal
    Internet Speed
    10 down 1.5 up
What if you boot the system with Knoppix and try to recover the files that way. I don't know if your files are permanently gone or not.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    AMD AM2 6000+
    Motherboard
    Nvidia M2N-E SLI
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 7600GT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WD
    Case
    Cooler Master
    Cooling
    Three fans
    Keyboard
    Dell Quietkey
    Mouse
    Dell Optical
    Internet Speed
    10 MBPS

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    AMD AM2 6000+
    Motherboard
    Nvidia M2N-E SLI
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 7600GT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WD
    Case
    Cooler Master
    Cooling
    Three fans
    Keyboard
    Dell Quietkey
    Mouse
    Dell Optical
    Internet Speed
    10 MBPS
Have you scanned for viruses, malware and the like?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    AMD AM2 6000+
    Motherboard
    Nvidia M2N-E SLI
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 7600GT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WD
    Case
    Cooler Master
    Cooling
    Three fans
    Keyboard
    Dell Quietkey
    Mouse
    Dell Optical
    Internet Speed
    10 MBPS
Also run chkdsk /f, but only after you try to recover your files.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    AMD AM2 6000+
    Motherboard
    Nvidia M2N-E SLI
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 7600GT
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    WD
    Case
    Cooler Master
    Cooling
    Three fans
    Keyboard
    Dell Quietkey
    Mouse
    Dell Optical
    Internet Speed
    10 MBPS
Wow. Thanks for so many earnest replies. I did boot up knoppix but I couldn't figure out how to mount the USB drive (because my BIOS hangs on startup with my drives powered on - another problem - I never did see the devices after boot).

In any case, the only change I made after rebooting a couple times, was to re-enable UAC. How stupid is that? I was desperate.

Re-enabling UAC allowed me to see, browse and fully control all the file systems in question.

Solved my recycle bin problem also.

I have been busy copying everything to optical media and am about halfway done.

So I've decided that I'm just gonna fdisk and re-format the drive when I'm done. See if that helps.

Again, thanks for being patient with me, I know I'm a bit of a drama queen. But I at least have my stuff back. For now...
 

My Computer

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