User Permissions caused corrupt folders - need help badly

paulohm1 · 04-29-2008, 02:12 PM

Today, while various employees were accessing the shared excel files located on our fileserver, I was fooling with user permissions on the server. However, everyone was using the excel files as the administrator. I changed the password to the administrator account (I know i shouldn't have) while these documents were still open on employees' desktops.

Since, the employees are unable to get into the directories in which they were working. So now I am actually sitting in front of the file server (Windows Server 2003) and trying to get into those directories, and it tells me that "Access is Denied". Also, when i hover the mouse over the folder it says "Folder Empty". The folders definitely should not be empty...and I am logged into the server as administrator.

Is it possible that me changing the administrator account password (with which the employees were accessing files in particular directories) somehow could have corrupted these folders entirely?

I realized there is no kind of system restore feature in Server 03...so do I have any other options?

I need help badly as there is a lot of work at stake right now and a lot of angered employees.

What i have tried (before receiving advice):

Before restarting, i logged in from another computer in the office using RDP with the new password while there was still a session of the old password running (this was a mistake). Then, I set the password back to the original, and restarted the server, and logged back in as administrator (with the old password).

paulohm1 · 04-29-2008, 03:26 PM

Well, it turned out that the switching of the password just somehow allowed the administrator account with one password to take ownership of a bunch of folders and files, and for some reason when i switched the password back, it didn't give ownership back.

steeb · 05-01-2008, 08:40 AM

Do you know about folder permissions?

Inside of the root directory of the folder right click > properties then click on security tab.

You will see who has access to this folder. From there, click on "advanced" then on "owner" tab. Click the "Administrators" object, then check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects"

Next let that go through all the files, this will assign adminstrators as owner of the files / folders. Re-open the properties box, then click on securities tab. Set the users who need access to these folders, if its everyone, add the everyone objects with WRD permissions. Click on advanced

on the bottom "replace permission entries on all child objects then press okay.

04-29-2008, 02:12 PM	#1 (permalink)
paulohm1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp sp2	User Permissions caused corrupt folders - need help badly Today, while various employees were accessing the shared excel files located on our fileserver, I was fooling with user permissions on the server. However, everyone was using the excel files as the administrator. I changed the password to the administrator account (I know i shouldn't have) while these documents were still open on employees' desktops. Since, the employees are unable to get into the directories in which they were working. So now I am actually sitting in front of the file server (Windows Server 2003) and trying to get into those directories, and it tells me that "Access is Denied". Also, when i hover the mouse over the folder it says "Folder Empty". The folders definitely should not be empty...and I am logged into the server as administrator. Is it possible that me changing the administrator account password (with which the employees were accessing files in particular directories) somehow could have corrupted these folders entirely? I realized there is no kind of system restore feature in Server 03...so do I have any other options? I need help badly as there is a lot of work at stake right now and a lot of angered employees. What i have tried (before receiving advice): Before restarting, i logged in from another computer in the office using RDP with the new password while there was still a session of the old password running (this was a mistake). Then, I set the password back to the original, and restarted the server, and logged back in as administrator (with the old password).

04-29-2008, 03:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
paulohm1 Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2 OS: xp sp2	Re: User Permissions caused corrupt folders - need help badly Well, it turned out that the switching of the password just somehow allowed the administrator account with one password to take ownership of a bunch of folders and files, and for some reason when i switched the password back, it didn't give ownership back.

05-01-2008, 08:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
steeb Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10 OS: XP	Re: User Permissions caused corrupt folders - need help badly Do you know about folder permissions? Inside of the root directory of the folder right click > properties then click on security tab. You will see who has access to this folder. From there, click on "advanced" then on "owner" tab. Click the "Administrators" object, then check "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" Next let that go through all the files, this will assign adminstrators as owner of the files / folders. Re-open the properties box, then click on securities tab. Set the users who need access to these folders, if its everyone, add the everyone objects with WRD permissions. Click on advanced on the bottom "replace permission entries on all child objects then press okay.