Can't Access, Play Audio Files in *One* Folder on External Hard Drive

Hi! I have Windows 10 Home 64 bit.

I've a folder with hundreds of audio files on my external hard drive that was created 10 years ago. They've been accessible and played until I moved from 7 to a Windows 10 machine recently. It is the only folder of many on the drive with this problem. Other audio files outside of this folder are fine.

I am using the sole administrator account for the computer; there are no other user accounts. I am the only one who will ever be using the computer. I do not share any files or download any new ones.

The main audio file folder has some 'loose' audio files as well as several sub folders in it. At first, when I would click on the main audio folder it wouldn't let me in and I'd get the "you don't currently have permission to access this folder" so I clicked continue to permanently add "Administrators" as owner. Now I can get in the main audio folder to view the 'loose' files and sub folders BUT...

1) when I click on one of the 'loose' files, Groove gives me a "can't play. We can't get to the file for this item. If it's downloading or just finished downloading, try again soon. Otherwise, make sure another app isn't using the file and that you can access the place the file is stored. 0x80070005." Windows Media player produces "Windows Media Player cannot access the file. The file might be in use, you might not have access to the computer where the file is stored, or your proxy settings might not be correct."

2) all of the sub folders in the main folder are giving me the "you don't currently have permission to access this folder..." error message.

I don't know if I already have done something wrong, already spent some hours trying, and could use some help, please. Thank you. I could bring this external drive back to a machine with an older version of Windows, if that helps (?).

idgat said:

Now that you can at least access the files, you create another folder while logged in under your user name. Test copy one or two files then try and play those from your new folder.

Thank you. "File access denied. You'll need to provide administrator permission to copy this file." Then when I click "Continue" I get pretty much the same error message. I am logged in to the only administrator account on the computer.

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Samuria said:

If the folder was created by a user on another pc that owner will own the folder so you need to take ownership of the folder then you can access it

Thank you. The main audio folder, containing 'loose' audio files as well as several sub folders, has already had ownership switched to "Administrators". Now that I am in the main folder, I cannot do anything with the loose audio files or get into the several sub folders.

Samuria said:

Did you take ownership of sub folders as well? use our util Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10

No. I did not go further than the main folder. I read on another tutorial here that once I did that with the main folder then the ownership would be inherited for all of the sub folders and any other file within that main folder. But that did not happen. I might not have done it right. I set it to "administrators". And I didn't want to really mess things up, because this whole permission/ownership thing is brand new to me, so I came for help on the forum.

Thank you for the link. Am I going to have to change ownership of the sub folders and the hundreds of audio files within this main folder individually, one at a time?

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Samuria said:

Did you take ownership of sub folders as well? use our util Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10

Thank you for helping me solve this. I added "take ownership" to the context menu with the link you provided then went back to the main folder, right clicked, "take ownership" and it automatically applied it to every file and subfolder. Awesome!