File Access Denied on Windows XP and how to take ownership

Problem with file ownership in Windows! Here is how to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP.

In the recent hard disc crash, I had a back-up for most of my files. Some of the files on a back-up drive was somehow avoiding me with an “Access Denied” even though I was logged in as the Administrator (or Administrative Rights). While asking around for help, a member from the Team Macromedia suggested me to google for the same. I finally got the solution on How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP.

Here are the steps in quickie mode

Log on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.
If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing.
Right-click the folder/file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
You do not have permission to read the contents of directory folderName. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?
All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.
Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.

Brajeshwar posted this article on Sat, Sep 24th, 2005 at 5:34 am
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There are 8 responses so far. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Anonymous January 11th, 2006 at 1:58 pm 1

Thanks a lot for this info! Exactly what I was looking for…!
Fredrik April 29th, 2007 at 8:32 pm 2

Many thanks! This one certainly saved my day.
Arne May 24th, 2007 at 9:42 am 3

Bummer, that doesnt work. The files are from another computer I discarded and are encrypted. No way to get access even though I am the one that encrypted them in the first place.
Craig July 25th, 2007 at 5:44 pm 4

Perfect, this solved my problem, can’t thanks you enough!
Deon March 21st, 2008 at 11:38 pm 5

Thanks very much! It had been so long since I’d seen the Security tab in WinXP Home that I forgot how to get to it.
J. April 17th, 2008 at 10:35 am 6

Well and what to do if there is no Security tab in the preferences dialog of a particular folder? Logged in as Admin, all attempt to touch the folder results “Access denied”
sean April 19th, 2008 at 4:21 am 7

Wow this worked Great, i backed up a Computer and it told me that the files were private. well this did the trick
Jean-Pierre July 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm 8

Man! Thanks SOOOO much for this! It helped to get back files from a directory I “shared” on the network that never shared properly. After disabling sharing, I had no access to the directory or any of the “non-existent files” inside. (Properties kept saying the directory was 0 bytes when there are many databases inside totalling 500MB+ each!

So thanks! This sorted out my problem!