User Permission problems on external drives

Hello all- I have researched this problem I have and cannot find a definitive solution. I have some external hard drives I use to store pictures movies, etc. Many of the folders and files that have been put on the drives are just wasting space and I would like to delete them. Problem is when I try to delete the laptop tells me I need permission to perform the delete. When I go to that folder and pull up the properties to get the security tab to edit the user permissions... I highlight any of the accounts (including the administrator account) and it does not allow me to add, remove, click on full control to allow full control, etc. Those functions are grayed out and will not allow me to change them so that I can have full permission rights and delete the folders on the hard drive. It is very annoying and in time the hard drive will be near full and I will have all those unwanted folders and files taking up space.

I have noticed that all the external drives I plug into my laptop show them to be in the shared state and it shows a tiny icon on top of the drive letter of two people's upper torso and head standing next to each other.

Does anyone know how to fix this or get access permission rights for these external drives.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Try to take ownership of those folders: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

Thanks Broni. That was one of the solutions I found while doing research on how to fix this. I saw it involved messing with the registry and that made me scared of messing things up on the computer. Have you tried this hack? Did it work for you or anyone you know?

Again thanks and best regards.

Manny

I used it a lot of times and it never created any issues.
It just changes permissions for a given folder/file.

EXCELLENT! Sounds like just the thing I need. I will download and install the next chance I get. Thanks again Broni. You have been very helpful.

Manny

You're very welcome

Broni - I tried out that download and it works like a charm. It allowed me to get rid of all the folders I needed to get rid of. The only exception it could not take ownership on was an old WINDOWS system folder and in particular the old system 32 folder. Let me explain. I had a laptop that died on me and I was able to salvage the hard drive, which of course had its WINDOWS system folder, files etc... and I am using it as an external hard drive for storage. The "Take Ownership" download application cannot take ownership of this folder and its contents.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of this folder? There is about 2 gigs of system files in the folder that used to belong to my old laptop.

Regardless, that download you suggested works great.

Thanks

Manny

Download, and install Unlocker: http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/
Restart computer.
It'll install under right click menu.

Open Windows Explorer.
Navigate to offending folder/file.

Right click on a folder/file. Click Unlocker
Select Delete from drop-down menu:



Click OK.
A folder/file will refuse to be deleted, but Unlocker will give you an option to delete on reboot:



Click Yes.
Restart computer.

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If the above doesn't work, try...

LockHunter: http://lockhunter.com/

FileASSASSIN: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/fileassassin.html

Thank you Sir. I will give those a try and I'll let you know how it went.

Manny

Broni, I downloaded Unlocker. The latest version is version 1.91 64 bit version. For that version it is an application that installs in your programs. It no longer is launched by right clicking. Anyway you go and highlight the offending folders and follow the instructions, select delete in one of the dropdown windows and click on Unlock. It then goes ahead and deletes whatever you chose to unlock and dumps them all into the recycle bin. Then you just clean out the recycle bin. Works like a charm!

Thanks a lot for the great recommendations and help. Hope this helps others as well.

Manny

You're very welcome