External drive access rights?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

WinXP Pro all updates/patches.
Seagate 160gig external HD formatted in NTFS

Problem: External drive can not be written to from my user account (access
is denied) but external drive *can* be written to from my Admin account.

I have tried giving my User account Admin rights and THEN formatting the
drive in NTFS, to see if that would make any difference. It does not. As
soon as I remove Admin rights from my User account (after formatting drive)
the problem is back again.

Thanks for any ideas.
 
charttricks said:
WinXP Pro all updates/patches.
Seagate 160gig external HD formatted in NTFS

Problem: External drive can not be written to from my user account (access
is denied) but external drive *can* be written to from my Admin account.
Click to expand...
This seems to show that the protections of the root of the drive are wrong.
That is where you should start.

Your experience indicates that a user with admin rights has the right to
read/write to the drive, but other users do not.

Jim
 
Jim, thanks.

Is it possible to change the protections of the root of the drive, if said
protections are indeed wrong? Thanks for any tips.

RNM
 
Yes, add the specific user to the list of users/groups and assign the permissions you want.
 
Doug,
Thank you very much.

Where do I add the user to the list. I assume this is the same place that I
would assign permission?

Thanks.,

RNM
 
You do this from the Security tab.

To do this, you must be running NTFS as your file system on the drive in question. If your hard disk/partition is not NTFS you will need to convert it. To do this, open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command:

CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS

Where X: is the drive letter you wish to convert. You may also want to see http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm to ensure that you're getting the optimal conversion.

After this step is completed and you've rebooted the computer, if necessary:

XP PRO: In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing. Now, when you right click on a drive, folder or file (on an NTFS partition) and select Properties, you'll see a Security tab. Here you can assign or deny permissions based on user name or user group membership.

XP Home: By default, you can only make files and folders under My Documents "private". This is done by right clicking a folder or file and selecting Properties, Sharing. To change the permissions on other folders, you need to boot the computer to Safe Mode and log in on the built in Administrator account. In this mode, you'll see the Security tab in Properties, and you can assign permissions based on user name or group membership.

How Do I Get the Security Tab in Properties - XP Home (makes the Security tab appear outside of Safe Mode)
http://www.dougknox.com, Win XP Tips section

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove Special Permissions for Files and Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;308419

HOW TO: Disable Simplified Sharing and Password-Protect a Shared Folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307874
 
Thank you Steve. unfortunately this information only applies to files and
folders, and not external drives. When I right click and select properties
 
You have Simplified File Sharing turned on. See my other post on how to turn it off. If it is, then this drive is FAT32 and there should be no permissions issues, at all.
 
As Doug said you need to disable simple file sharing. I believe that may
have been mentioned in the links I provided. Anyhow open Windows Explorer
and go to tools/folder options - view and uncheck the last option for use
simple file sharing. You may then need to reboot the computer and should
then see the security tab if you are using NTFS file system which it sounds
like you are since access is currently being denied.

Steve
 
Back
Top