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I have a Windows 2003 Standard x64 Server with SP2.

After deleting a large number of folders from a folder, the OS is reporting "Access Denied" on any attempt to read or manipulate the folder. When examining the folder's properties, the Security tab is missing, only General and Customize are listed. We've tried a few things already.

  1. Rename folder, access denied.
  2. Delete folder, access denied.
  3. Take ownership of parent folder, and propagate permissions to children, access denied.
  4. Subinacl, access denied.
  5. Takeown (cmdline), access denied.

We are running chkdsk in read-only mode, and this has not completed yet. If possible we would like to solve this problem without rebooting or running a full chkdsk with the server offline.

Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

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If you can't claim ownership, and your account is a domain admin or enterprise admin account, then something is /very/ wrong with this picture... – Avery Payne Jun 26 '09 at 21:43
Yep, I wouldn't be asking if something wasn't very wrong :) – magnifico Jun 26 '09 at 22:12
I found that the above was correct. A user was holding the folder open, with a hung process. I used a tool called Hyena and disconnected the users session from the folder in question and this allowed me access. – Peter Nov 26 '12 at 7:48

3 Answers

up vote 18 down vote accepted

When I've seen this it was because a process was holding the folder open but the folder was in the process of being deleted. Use a tool like Process Explorer to see if anything has an open handle on the folder. I would guess that once you release it or reboot, that folder will disappear.

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Thanks, I found that System had a handle. When I deleted the handle, the folder vanished. It was empty anyway, so +1 for the win. – magnifico Jun 26 '09 at 21:46
This just solved an issue for me. Thanks Kevin! – Chris Thorpe Mar 26 '10 at 1:27
Worked fine for me too. Had the index service on the server cidaemon locking one file and preventing profile loading on the client. – André Schild Jan 31 '11 at 10:55
I'm an idiot; I can't believe I didn't think to check this. Thank you. – Owen Blacker Jan 11 '12 at 12:15
up vote 1 down vote

It sounds more like there is a file lock on the folder - probably some application has got it open. Try using a program like Unlocker - it should show you what app has got it locked and it can release the lock and then delete the file or folder for you.

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+1 Thanks for the suggestion, I've used Unlocker before but in this case I wanted to avoid installing anything. – magnifico Jun 26 '09 at 22:11
up vote 1 down vote

I was in an identical situation - the backup/restore program we use (FDR/Upstream) had a lock on the folders - restarted it's service and it let go.

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