Windows Server 2003 NTFS – How to Take Ownership of a Folder When Access is Denied and Security Tab is Missing

ntfswindows-server-2003

I have a Windows 2003 Standard x64 Server with SP2.

After deleting a large number of folders from a folder, the OS is reporting "Access Denied" on any attempt to read or manipulate the folder. When examining the folder's properties, the Security tab is missing, only General and Customize are listed. We've tried a few things already.

  1. Rename folder, access denied.
  2. Delete folder, access denied.
  3. Take ownership of parent folder, and propagate permissions to children, access denied.
  4. Subinacl, access denied.
  5. Takeown (cmdline), access denied.

We are running chkdsk in read-only mode, and this has not completed yet. If possible we would like to solve this problem without rebooting or running a full chkdsk with the server offline.

Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

Best Answer

When I've seen this it was because a process was holding the folder open but the folder was in the process of being deleted. Use a tool like Process Explorer to see if anything has an open handle on the folder. I would guess that once you release it or reboot, that folder will disappear.

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