Windows 7 File permissions GHM

Factual Questions
1

Hi,
your favorite geek signing in to throw another of my conundrums to the crowd ( of other geeks of course =P )

Anyway, I’m stuck … and I’m frustrated so maybe someone can share sth I hadn’t thought of yet or been able to obtain via Google.

Basically I had to install virtual XP aka XP mode onto a client’s computer - they have 2 HDDs (physical) in their computer and since the D:/ drive is empty I figured why not stick the virtual drive over there and let it fill up the whole drive as they save things and leave the other drive to hold Windows 7, the recovery partition and that “mystery” FAT32 39MB partition.

Wait for it, I’m getting there… XP Mode has 2 virtual HDDs, the parent (base) and the other for where your saved files and alterations go. There is an Option to merge these two “disks”, especially in the case that you only want 1 VM or you want to make it more portable.

In my case, I just want to move it over (merged) onto the D:/ drive so that 1) it’s all in one place and 2) so it can populate more space there as this is the primary purpose for this machine.

That’s where I get stuck, Windows tell me the parent/base HDD is a read only file and that I need to change the attribute to go further. So I track down the file and click off the read-only and apply “nope, sorry you don’t have permission” So I try to change permission, “nope, you don’t have permission to change permissions”. Next, I try the attrib command in Admin level prompt “nope” , then I opened the hidden admin account “net user admin… blahblah” that one worked, but when I tried to add permissions to the ownership account “no dice” btw, now I only get a error code 5 when i try that admin stuff… anyway, then I tried to take ownership, both using the c:/ takeown cmd and also through the file’s security tab.

The kicker is, I’ve successfully managed to make almost any other file grant me full access, but with the file I want to change from read only I only have control over the “read” and the “read & execute” functionality… sigh… I’m almost ready to just reinstall XP mode and try to place it where I wanted it to begin with… anyway if anyone has any other ideas, feel free to share… thanks.

2

Maybe I missed it-- are you a local administrator while toggling these permissions?

3

no, not an admin, just a pretty resourceful tech :D. It’s just when it comes to permissions type of problems it always leaves me grinding my teeth. Btw, since I do have 1 responder to this post I’ll update things.
I finally removed the read-only attribute, not with powerful commands or getting the right permissions, but by going in the file from a live (CDFS) environment and simply unchecking the attribute box…yeah…

unfortunately it did not solve my problem as the file/“disk” I’m trying to merge is now stating that it’s not possible because it’s in use, which it’s not. I was very careful to be sure the virtual machine was powered down before I tried any of this geek magic on it.

On top of that I have another growing permissions problem where even in the hidden admin account I seem unable to grant the standard user enough permission to install any programs on the computer with this account, much less open “Msconfig” . Many standard user freedoms seem to be denied and I can’t seem to give back these rights from the admin account.

4

That’s not what was meant by asking if you were an “admin.” The question meant whether you had an Administrator account, as opposed to a Limited User account.

I originally explained how to take ownership of a file, but you seem to understand that. Don’t forget to also try taking ownership of the folder the file is in (or disk, if it’s not in a folder).

If the file still shows up as being “in use”, then you’ll need a program called Lock Hunter, which will find out why the file is in use, and allow you to unlock the file. If it doesn’t find anything, you’ll probably need to right-click on the drive the file is on and choose Properties > Tools > “Check for errors,” as maybe your Live Environment set the dirty bit on the filesystem, which can result in all files on the disk being “in use,” at least, if you plan on writing to them. If that still doesn’t work, then your live environment must have hosed the file. You’ll have to uninstall and reinstall Windows XP Mode.

You may want to consider using a different Virtual Machine to run the Windows XP Mode disk. I personally use Virtualbox. I’ve had success with VMLite Workstation, although it’s a bit old. I currently use Virtualbox with a custom BIOS image that came from VMLite, all 100% legal (as long as you can legally use Windows XP Mode, that is.) PM me if you want that BIOS file. But, honestly, if VMLite works, use that instead, as it’s easier to set up.

5

“Local Administrator” isn’t a job title, it’s a permissions group in Windows. Local Administrator should be able to do all of the things you tried, which is why I asked that first… it’s pretty important to know what permissions you have before trying to figure out why you can’t change something.

My guess is that you didn’t have Local Administrator permissions on the computer, which is why your attempts failed until you booted from a CD (in whose OS you did have Local Administrator permissions.)

6

While this is true, I read the “Change ownership” part of the post above to read that he did actually change the ownership, seeing as, if you aren’t an Administrator, you can’t do that through the GUI.