I have a hard disk from a computer that won't turn on (the data is safe though), and I'm backing it up to an external drive. When copying certain folders (namely "Users" and "Windows"), I've been unable due to permissions restrictions. I've read up about the need to take ownership, but I'm worried that it will mess up system functionality if I plan to reuse the drive I'm backing up (which I am, because the data is fine). How safe is it to take ownership of these folders and change permissions en masse if I plan to reuse the drive as my boot drive in the other computer when repaired?
2 Answers
For user profile folders, you shouldn't have to change the owner at all to get access. If you try to enter one that isn't yours while logged on as an administrator, Explorer will offer to adjust the access control list (ACL) to give you full access. If you accept, it will add access control entries that grant full control to the account you're using. These will not damage the rightful owner's ability to work with their files.
Who owns a file only matters when trying to change the ACL, so even if you take ownership of a system file, nothing terrible will happen. Various system folders, though, have special ACLs, and if you clobber their existing rules while giving yourself access, you could introduce security vulnerabilities or break the system. Fortunately, Explorer will warn you before automatically overwriting an ACL with one that gives you full control.
In short, you will be fine if you're careful, and even if not, permissions errors are correctable. Still, though, you can make your life easier by backing up the entire volume and then copying files out of that. Disk2vhd can create a virtual hard disk (VHD) file from one or more partitions. Assuming you have Windows 8 or newer, you can mount the resulting VHD by simply double-clicking it. (You might disconnect the original physical drive first so that you don't get them confused.) The virtual disk will have everything from the real disk, including the original permissions. You can steamroll the owner and/or ACL of any file on the virtual drive and grab your data.
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It did not do what you said. It would prompt me, saying "You do not have permission", then even if I clicked "Continue", it would not allow me access. Many other people experienced this behaviour with internal drives. I don't feel like I'm in a position to do disk partitioning though. As milo8505 suggested, I'd need to backup my backup drives, which is not possible for me as I don't have that many drives. I've stuck with copying folders for now, as it's unlikely my broken computer's drive will get fried to the point of needing a reinstall.– SUM1Commented Jul 3, 2018 at 13:50
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@SUM1 Interesting. What OS are you using (both on the offline disk and the live machine)? Just to be clear, you got that error when trying to enter a user profile folder? For what it's worth, Disk2vhd doesn't require another physical drive or any repartitioning - it just makes a copy of a volume and saves it as a virtual hard disk file. All you need to do is choose where to save the VHD, check the volumes you want to include, and click Create.– Ben NCommented Jul 3, 2018 at 15:30
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The broken computer is Windows 7 64-bit, and the live machine is Windows 10 64-bit. Yes, I got the error when trying to either enter or copy both the "Users" and "Windows" folders. And thank you for suggesting that tool.– SUM1Commented Jul 4, 2018 at 8:14
Just want to answer my own question for others. Yes, it is dangerous, and it was probably what ended up corrupting my drive (specifically the master boot record) when I used it to boot into the fixed machine. Up until this point, I was a complete newbie when it came to dealing with individual computer parts, but in a matter of weeks I've come a long way and have managed to build myself a replacement computer from scratch.
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1I would be surprised if changing permissions and/or ownership would change the master boot record. But I’m not shocked to hear that Windows gave you a hard time. I hope you didn’t lose any data. Commented Sep 17, 2018 at 5:43
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@Scott Yes, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure what did corrupt the drive, but it's the only thing I can think of that I messed around with before booting back into it (I changed several hundred permissions in the Windows folder before cancelling the operation). I managed to save all folders on the drive except what was in C:\Windows. However, reinstalling programmes on the new machine is proving to be absolute hell. And I won't make the newbie mistake of copying folders anymore – I'm already imaging my new machine to external drives.– SUM1Commented Sep 17, 2018 at 6:06
backupprogram which performed disc-to-disc copies.