Lost all permissions and control of files/folders

Hi all, earlier I plugged in the hard drive from my wife's PC into my own PC (both windows 10) so I could try to recover some files from it (as it's currently not booting into windows).


As soon as I booted my PC back up I could see the second hard drive was there but since then I've been experiencing all sorts of issues. I am still an administrator but I just don't seem to be able to do anything - it's hard to describe, but I can't move or change or delete ANY files or folders on my system, I can't move files to or from an external drive for back up, on the desktop the right click menu doesn't come up at all and on files/folders it has no ability to access properties.


Also, whilst most programs still open normally, any Microsoft Office programs just don't do anything at all when clicked on. It's as if I have lost all control over making any changes on my PC.


I assumed that the two drives were conflicting in some way so removed the second drive but the problems are still there. I've never seen anything like this before and am struggling to even target where the problem is, and searching for a solution hasn't turned up anyone who has had similar issues.


Thanks for any help!

I really have no idea, but if your Microsoft programs are not working, it might have something to do with your User accounts. Which MS products are you using? Office 365 might automatically stop working if they don't receive accurate Account Ownership info, etc. Do you log on with a Local Account or with a Microsoft Account? Do you have multiple Users set up for your PC?

Did the other hard drive have any of the same MS applications installed on it?

How did you connect the second hard drive? Is it possible your PC booted from the other drive?

If you have a restoration point from before installing the second drive, now would be a good time to use it.

Otherwise, I'd try some of the standards:

1. Confirm your BIOS settings. If anything looks out of sorts, switch them to default/optimized settings.
2. Check your drivers. Go to Device Manager and Scan for Hardware Changes. It's possible other drivers were used for the other drive and are somehow interfering with your HDD driver... Maybe....
3. Run sfc /scannow and check for corruption (use an elevated Command Prompt).
4. If sfc cannot fix it, try using DISM to repair.
5. Try booting into Safe Mode to see if you can learn anything more about the problem (great overviews on how to do this in the forums).
6. If none of this helps, then I would go for an in-place reinstall. It might be faster than trying to rundown whatever is going on. Just be sure to use the most recent ISO file, allow updates during the install and remember to keep your files, programs and settings.

Any additional info as you move forward will definitely help.

The good news is there are very knowledgeable folks on this site (I'm not one of them) and I'm confident you will find a solution here!

Hi,

You could try this:

Download and install this Resource kit program:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=23510

Copy this into notepad and save it. Rename .txt to .bat and run id as administrator:

@echo off
title Resetting ACLs...
cd /d "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
echo.
echo Resetting ACLs...
echo (this may take several minutes to complete)
echo.
echo ==========================================================================
echo.
echo System Drive...
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
echo.
echo.
echo Windows Directory...
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
echo.
echo.
echo ==========================================================================
echo.
echo FINISHED.
echo.
echo Press any key to exit . . .
pause >NUL

Reboot the machine.

Hope this helps,