Windows – Best way to reset all security/ownership for NTFS

ntfspermissionsSecuritywindows

How can I completely reset the security and ownership for a drive (ie. all subdirectories and files)?

I'm recreating a large RAID array and I'd like to "start fresh" with the absolute default security and permissions for everything.

I believe I need to run:

icacls . /reset /T /Q

EDIT: Also, what other files should I cleanup? (ie. thumbs.db, the system .ntfs folder, etc?)

Best Answer

Format the drive. That guarantees default security descriptors and cleans up everything else, too.

Update after comment from SofaKng:

Once you have created a fresh new volume copy everything back from your backup. Remember that permissions are not copied across volumes.