I re-installed Windows 7 on a new system hard-drive. The old system hard-drive has been disconnected since before the procedure. After the procedure, modification actions (deletion, writing) on some non-system drives (and all their containing folders) require admin approval. After rudimentary analysis, I am not able to see the difference between drives with this problem and those without. For drives with the problem: I have tried granting (allowing) all permissions (to multiple user groups, including 'Everyone', 'SYSTEM', and current admin user) under Security settings at the top-level for each drive. This did not fixed the problem. I have tried transferring ownership to the current admin user (the current owner was set to some unknown name - collection of letters and numbers). This did not fix the problem. I have noticed that all folders have the read-only attribute enabled. Disabling this attribute asks for admin approval, but does not change it in the end. Could someone please explain to me what could have caused this and how I can repair it. If possible, I would also like to find technical documentation related to this issue. I have previously worked with FAT permissions under Linux, but never really had a need to deal with NTFS this closely before. Thank you very much in advance, Boris.

Hi Boris, Have you tried Icacls - hope it helps ( built-in on windows 7 ) reference the switches below. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753525(WS.10).aspx MVP Windows Security

Thank you for your comment, MILO. I have not tried the Icacls tool. However, I was able to resolve the problem by setting the partition to Active under Computer Management. Please note that some of the drives that do not have this problem are not set to Active . Could someone please explain how this attribute is related to DACL and NTFS security. My understanding was that this attribute is only relevant in the context of Windows boot-up. Edit: Actually, this has only partially solved the issue. Some folders still have the problem. I am starting to suspect that specific folders with this problem are those that have been shared under the previous OS install.

I am still not able to resolve the issue.