I have a number of files that were in my My Documents folder in my old Win 7 PC. I recently bought a new machine with Win 10 preinstalled. I have copied some of those old files on to a portable drive and want to copy them again to the Documents folder on the new one. When I try I get a message telling me I can't open the file because I don't have permission to do so. I'm logged in as Administrator but that doesn't help. I've tried a number of suggestions from on the web but nothing has worked, and in some cases the options suggested just don't exist. Can someone please help me with this problem, as I need to use some of those files.
Can't open old files
- Thread starter Calhob
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Right click the problem file and choose properties.
Use the "Security" tab "Advanced" button to grant your user account full control to the file.
You might want to check "Owner" near the top and confirm that your user account is also the owner or else you may need to change that also.
In some rare instances it may be necessary to "Disable Inheritance" and convert existing permissions but not usually.
Likely the file owner and the permissions list will include some "Unknown Accounts" which are a product of your having moved the files from the other computer.
Use the "Security" tab "Advanced" button to grant your user account full control to the file.
You might want to check "Owner" near the top and confirm that your user account is also the owner or else you may need to change that also.
In some rare instances it may be necessary to "Disable Inheritance" and convert existing permissions but not usually.
Likely the file owner and the permissions list will include some "Unknown Accounts" which are a product of your having moved the files from the other computer.
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Trouble's suggestion will work. If you are apprehensive, however, regarding getting into security alterations, try this "Fix"
Just run it and agree to the questions.
Now, if you right click the items you wish to transfer, you will see an extra option to "take ownership"
This will go through the security item and adjust accordiningly.
It is useful to keep installed on the computer, but, if you are unhappy with that, you can uninstall it again by using the second attachment.
Just run it and agree to the questions.
Now, if you right click the items you wish to transfer, you will see an extra option to "take ownership"
This will go through the security item and adjust accordiningly.
It is useful to keep installed on the computer, but, if you are unhappy with that, you can uninstall it again by using the second attachment.
Thanks for your quick replies Trouble and davehc.
I've tried your suggestions but unfortunately without success. I've even disabled inheritance but nothing has worked. Dave, your little fix program installed OK and placed 'Take ownership' in the context menu. Clicking on it caused a slight flicker on the screen but made no difference to the problem.
It's not possible to copy the files from the portable drive to the documents folder on the PC, as I get a message saying I need Administrator permission to do so. I'm the Administrator, so that's puzzling.
Another quite disturbing thing I've noticed is that every time I try to open one of the files, its size, as shown in the file manager details, is instantly reduced to 0 bytes.
I'm baffled by all this and really regretting buying a PC with Windows 10 pre-installed.
Any further suggestions would be most welcome.
I've tried your suggestions but unfortunately without success. I've even disabled inheritance but nothing has worked. Dave, your little fix program installed OK and placed 'Take ownership' in the context menu. Clicking on it caused a slight flicker on the screen but made no difference to the problem.
It's not possible to copy the files from the portable drive to the documents folder on the PC, as I get a message saying I need Administrator permission to do so. I'm the Administrator, so that's puzzling.
Another quite disturbing thing I've noticed is that every time I try to open one of the files, its size, as shown in the file manager details, is instantly reduced to 0 bytes.
I'm baffled by all this and really regretting buying a PC with Windows 10 pre-installed.
Any further suggestions would be most welcome.
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When I see such problems I will either boot to a Linux LiveDVD such as Linux Mint [if not at home] or put the drive in a docking device attached to my Linux Mint Desktop to attempt recovering data. Linux file management can work with a number of drive formats.
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Well if you've taken ownership and granted your user account full control of the file, then you've done everything necessary to open the file.
What are the file sizes on their original location
What are the file sizes after you've copied them to your thumb drive
What are the file sizes after you've copied them from the thumb drive to the destination computer
Do you have any problems opening them on the original computer? What operating system is on that computer?
What type of files are they exactly?
That gives me pause.
What are the file sizes on their original location
What are the file sizes after you've copied them to your thumb drive
What are the file sizes after you've copied them from the thumb drive to the destination computer
Do you have any problems opening them on the original computer? What operating system is on that computer?
What type of files are they exactly?
They are mostly .doc and ,jpg files related to my hobby of restoring and riding old motorcycles. Mainly correspondence, pix and info gleaned from various sources. All small files of around 1-5 MB. I didn't look at the size of them when I copied them but I don't think there was any change.
No, there was never any problem with opening them on the old PC, which ran on Win 7.
Another strange thing is that some of the files in the same folder are in sub-folders and they open normally. It's only the loose ones that weren't put into separate folders inside the main one that refuse to open.
I guess I'm going to have to fire up the old machine, reinstall the HDD and try to copy them to the new machine, probably via the cloud. Bit of a hassle, but all else has failed.
Bighorn is suggesting using a Linux LiveDVD. I have no knowledge or experience of Linux in any shape or form, so that's not really an option. Re copying from the old machine to the portable drive, that was done using the Win 7 machine. Now I'm trying to use the new Win 10 machine to relocate them to the folder there.
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It is not a big feat. You download the ISO, put it on a bootable medium. Boot up. By default it boots (takes a while with a DVD) to the linix desktop. Somehwrer, from there, you can selct the equivalent of the file manager and make the ransfer of those files.
If you cannot sse where the file manager is setting, there are several Linux users here who can give you a detailed picture..
There are many live cds out there. I have always found knoppix the quickest and easiest.
http://knoppix.net/
If you cannot sse where the file manager is setting, there are several Linux users here who can give you a detailed picture..
There are many live cds out there. I have always found knoppix the quickest and easiest.
http://knoppix.net/
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That's mildly interesting.
You might try creating a new folder structure on the new machine where you are relocating the files with folders or just a single folder which ever suits your purposes best and then attempt to recopy the loose files into that container or those containers.
It sounds to me lke an inheritance problem where some files (those loose files) were impacted differently by your efforts to relocate them.
It's somewhat complicated and the fact that you used a third portable drive (not the host and not the destination) between your efforts might have further complicated the process.
It has to do with drive formats (ntfs, fat32, exFat, etc) and how inheritance is handled (maintained, changed or discarded) in each instance and in some other instances how the file was relocated (copied versus moved).
You might try Google ( explain file inheritance copy move ntfs fat32 ) to help understand some of the pitfalls.
OR
You might try just one of the problem files.
Disable inheritance, do not convert existing permissions, just remove them from that single file, and....
Then add just the "Everyone" group and grant that group full permissions to that single file and see if that has the desired results.
Dave, I had a look at the Knoppix site and it all looks too complicated for a non-techie like me. But even if it allows me to copy the old files to the Win 10 machine, will it also make them guaranteed to open? If the won't open from the portable HDD using Win 10, why should they open from the same platform on the new PC?
Trouble, I tried your second suggestion but again with no luck.Same refusal to open and to let me move the files on to the new machine. I guess my only option is to fire up the old machine and keep it on hand for when I need to use those files. It still works, though rather buggy and slow.
I'm also considering removing Win 10 and installing Win 7, which I was using before and which was very user friendly. Looking around the web, you see literally thousands of people having all sorts of problems with 10, which makes me think it's still a work in progress. Maybe try it again in a year or so when MS might have debugged it properly. Thanks for your help, guys.