Unable to right click Start to programs after accessing from 2nd SSD

I recently installed a new SSD with the purpose of solving all the issues relating to 2004 support ceasing, I was unable to upgrade to 21H1/2 due to the "couldn't complete updates, undoing changes" loop. So I decided to do a clean install of 21H2 on the new SSD. Everything went smooth with the new set up, but a strange thing happened when I accessed my old SSD windows system and went to open the folder I created within "My Documents" folder, it contained my Google Bookmarks I wanted to transfer. Of course it refused access to me and I clicked on proceed as administrator (before we go any further, I probably should've stopped at this point as I'm a novice!!) so after clicking on proceed as administrator it further denied access, I guess as I was logged in with admin rights on the old system when I created the folder and now I'm trying to access it (even though on the same PC but as a different administrator) but what is strange is that it allowed me to change permission and ownership to that folder and this is where the whole thing went pear shaped.

As I said I'm ok with a reasonable level of understanding about PC's (I built my own system and got it up & going 2 years ago) but when it comes to privileges/parent/child objects/ groups etc I'm over in the dunce corner weeping like a babe.

So what happened was I changed the ownership of that 1 folder from my old admin to my new admin PC name. The problem now is that it seems to have been applied to not just that 1 folder, but now the whole account seems to be screwed up on that OS. It seems now to have be randomly changed over to my new admin account on the new SSD. To confirm this I tried to access other folders in my documents and they, as yet, are still protected from my access but others are fine I'm allowed access. My big problem is it has disabled my right click option on "Start" and has also messed with all the programs installed on that drive. I guess that that one change has changed the ownership of that entire OS to my new admin name even though I only changed permissions to 1 folder.

My question is can I reverse this change of ownership and recover my OS again, it has Photoshop and a lot of other programs on it that I wish to still use until I get to install them on the new SSD? I tried doing a system restore, but when windows was searching for a disc image it couldn't find one for "this PC" as I guess the ownership/name has changed and it doesn't recognize the old image.

- - - Updated - - -

I just looked at the ownership of the old SSD and yes the ownership has been changed to the setting I put in place for the folder I changed. I think the mistake I made was to check the "apply to subfolders and files within this folder". So it's taken ownership of random files and folders (not all folders, as I still get you don't have permissions pop up on other folders in "My Documents") and the actual drive itself. So I guess the thing to do would be to take ownership back of the old SSD from the changed name to the original name. I thought when checking that box that it only applied to subfolders within that 1 particular folder, not the whole OS. Will reverting the name back to the original name on the SSD cover the whole OS and therefore no need to start the process at the source I changed in the first place.

dalchina said:

Hi,

1. Installing Win 10.

One key thing to do when installing an O/S is not to have another O/S installation on a disk in the same PC.

It's not clear what the situation was when you installed your O/S on the new SSD. When you did that, was your old system disk still in the PC?

The 'clean' and 100% reliable way to install Win 10 is to have only the target system disk in the PC. Sure, you should be able to do that if all other disks are data only, but caution is always advisable.

Put another way, if you now only have your new system disk in your PC, does it boot from that, and can you see all the partitions you should on it?

2. Backup. Have you been using disk imaging routinely and regularly as is endlessly recommended here, so if you get yourself into a mess, you often have a way back without needing technical help? E.g. Macrium Reflect free/paid or Aomei Backupper free/ paid + large enough external storage for iimage files.

If you had a disk image of your original SSD partitions you could
- restore your SSD to as was
and
- extract data from the image files
and
- explore the possibility of resolving the upgrade problem.

3. Inability to upgrade.
Considering your original inability to upgrade, there are a couple of people on tenforums who are willing to spend some hours and many posts trying to help people with that issue.

Sometimes that is due to some driver - some installed program- that needs removing. Sometimes other reasons. Detaild log analysis and many posts over several days are typically needed.

4. Permissions and accessing data.
Assuming you haven't yet discovered the value of using disk imaging, one way to access your original SSD without permissions issues is to boot your PC from a live boot disk (Google, download iso, create disk using e.g. Rufus, free) and then you should be able to copy data off that disk.

Just some quick thoughts..

I actually disconnected all my other drives when installing the new windows on the new SSD so there is no conflict there. As I said in my post the problem occurred (as far as not being able to right click on Start on old SSD) when after I'd set up my new SSD and then was looking for the "Bookmarks folder" from "My Documents" on the old SSD(created when I was admin for that drive) to get the Google HTML to import my favourites.

Now because I was accessing this folder from my new SSD it denied me access, so I then changed the permissions and after doing so found the whole drive(not just the folder) is now owned/ administrated by me on my new SSD. This is why when I login (using boot menu F11 on start up) I select the old SSD and find that I can't access my programs and my Email as it's now under a different admin. I just need some confirmation from someone who know about this subject to tell me that if I reverse the process and replace the new admin for the old admin then windows will be able to not only find my disc image on my external back up drive but it should also allow me to access right click menus and Start.

Ghot said:

@Hiconic

Let's see if I got this straight...

Always "export" your browser(s) bookmarks to a storage drive somewhere, before you do anything major. That way... if you restore from a backup, for example, you won't lose any new bookmarks.

As for your problem, I'm not really sure what you did, or why what you did caused the results you've mentioned.
If the only thing you "want" from your old SSD is the bookmarks... just go onto the old SSD and export them to a USB stick or storage drive.
You can also move anything else you "want" from the old SSD to your storage drive at this time.

Then... just remove all the other drives, and redo your clean install on the new SSD.
Then, put the old SSD back in and just delete all the partitions and create new ones, so you can use the old SSD as storage.

I've got the bookmarks now after getting access from the ownership change of the folder. I was intending on putting the bookmarks on a stick but didn't get around to it and I assumed I would have access to the drive after my new installation was up and running so I just created the Bookmarks folder in My Docs and thought I would get it from there. The thing is I want to restore the original SSD back to it's pre folder change fiasco where it renamed admin for the entire drive as I have Photoshop installed on that drive as well as other programs that I still wan to use. I don't want to get all the failed updates issues addressed, I just want to be able to access it as I did before. I will use the new SSD for my main work but I wanted to use the old drive via boot manager (F11) and login as admin as before, I just don't know if reversing the name change on the folder is the way to achieve this or would I be better off just taking ownership of the entire drive back to my original admin name.

@Ghot
so is that the case that you cannot run 2 separate drives (booting into only 1 at a time) with windows 10. I read of several people doing just this and not having problems. I think the problem I created was accessing the old drive from my new OS and thinking I could run around inside it accessing stuff without any issues. I thought I would've been able to just copy paste folders and it would work OK.

The problem was after taking ownership of that one folder, it threw a giant spanner in the works and windows said "oh no you don't" and changed the whole drive over to the new SSD admin. I did download Macrium in readiness to do this but I thought I could do it after the new install was complete. Instead like a goose I started playing around copying and pasting folders when I should've just done the Macrium back up and transfer, now the Old SSD is toast I think, unless I can reverse that folder ownership and by magic the OS reverts back to it's original state. The problem with the old SSD I can't do much with it as the admin is now from the new SSD and before buying the new SSD I attempted to upgrade the Old SSD to 21H2 and it wouldn't do it due to the failed updates issue I was having. Hence the new drive and upgrade.