Issues with access rights following an OS upgrade, clean installation, and reinstalling a secondary drive.
Issues with access rights following an OS upgrade, clean installation, and reinstalling a secondary drive.
Greetings, Here I am asking for help for my self induced nightmare. This is a long story so take a seat. Used to run Windows 7 with 2x SSD drives, 2tb Sandisk for Boot, all programs installed there including users, 1tb Samsung for backup files, downloads and stuff I can push over & then back that drive to external. I had made Macrium images for both drives and still have them (though aging). I ran out of room and decided to install a 4tb drive for most programs and games. I initially imaged the 2tb onto the 4tb (now GPT initialized) and the 1tb to the 2tb, so I can maximize my space and still run the same configuration. Of course, I had to run Macrium Rescue to fix the GPT and re-gain my lost space from the image. Silly me, I was hoping to boot to GPT drive in Legacy mode, not happening. Then I decided to install Windows 8.1 in thinking this would solve my issue, so, I backed up the 2tb, deleted partition and installed Win 8.1 on it, realized it's not a UEFI install USB, gave up the idea of UEFI booting. Initially I made a Microsoft Account for Login since I have the live.com e-mail, my install WAIO would not allow to skip and install a local account. Went in and created a local account, logged into it, deleted the Microsoft account & user folders. Installed the Shell App. which gets rid of the ugliness of Win 8.1 and uninstalled the entire Microsoft store, one drive, and their pre-installed garbage. Then I started getting permission errors, have drive C as the 2tb and drive B as the 4tb GPT. My local account was always Administrator, but when I first looked at groups, I was also member of Users (besides Administrators), which I thought limited my account, so I removed myself from Users. Didn't seem to help anything. Deleting the B: drive Windows and Program Files seem to go fine, but installing anything new would throw access denied & no permission errors. The user profile files were copied from my old Win 7 user as most games & apps. save their configs and games there. I've tried turning off secure boot, as I thought that might be an interference in my new OS, no dice. Then I started taking ownership with the Administrators group, turn on the Administrator account, adding TrustedInstaller as owner, still various permissions and Temp folder Access Denied Error 5. So I changed temp folders as 1 for my user account and 1 for the system. The one for the system has no errors now. I took ownership on Root C: and Root B: hoping one setting will save me and refract to all subfolders and files. Replace have no effect it seems, some folders have their own non-inherited configuration, despite enabling inheritance. All folders show Read Only, no errors in removing it, but checking back in right away, it shows read only again. I am not member of a domain or home network and set no policies in gpedit as to software. I kinda succeeded in fixing some issues so I installed software and games, also game platforms. Then I ran into issues of software has no access to path/directory, steam cannot write to registry, some games only play as administrator, some games not at all (most on B: drive), others fail to save games. I resorted installing only from the C: drive subfolders because of this (I kept my downloads folder on B: drive in the past). So then I took ownership of registry main folders with my username as owner and gave All Applications full permissions (Myself, Administrators, System, TrustedInstaller as well), didn't resolve the steam problem. Seems to have a problem repairing the Visual Studio install (uninstalled some older versions without thinking), I don't remember the error. I have no idea at all who Windows 8.1 thinks owns this PC or where I can find that. I did full anti-virus scans using: ESET Online, MBAM, SuperAntiSpyware, Windows Defender, ran RKill, Hitmanx64, McAfee Stinger and Kaspersky TDSS - 0 findings. I ran DISM & SFC no damaged files or repairs needed. I need an expert Windows 8.1 fix (or set to default) for - Group Policies, Windows Registry, Windows Services, Drive Security Permissions. I'm kind of in a mud pile now where some things are working but not fully in my control and looking for a solution other than Format C & B, because of too much time invested in installation & downloads of software and games and this might re-occur. I am the sole user of the PC, I need exactly 0 security relating to multiple users and would rather switch off a feature than let the PC guess, but I do use the internet and e-mail client(s). Thanks for reading (if you're still with me) and your consideration.
Hello, welcome to 2022 soon! Many players are now using Windows 10 or 11. Version 8.1 feels outdated from a 2012 perspective. With your data safely backed up, it looks good. Set your 4TB drive to GPT format. Disconnect any drives you aren’t installing on. Enable UEFI boot and install via USB—preferably Windows 10 or 11. If you see free space at 4TB or separate partitions, remove all partitions and reinstall Windows to that free space. For a local installation, disconnect the network until the process finishes, then click "Continue" without network options. Win11 may not be ideal, but alternatives exist. After several restarts, your Windows setup should work properly. You can use your 8.1 key for Windows 10. The problem likely arises if you upgrade without changing the drive or if user settings and SSIDs from previous installs remain active. To prevent issues, delete all partitions on the system disk before reinstalling. If you reuse the old drive or install again, it will retain the previous user accounts and permissions. You may need to log in as an administrator and change the SSID to something like "PC" to avoid conflicts. Only by clearing everything and restoring from a folder with proper ownership can you ensure smooth recovery of files and settings. Backups typically preserve NTFS rights and ACLs, so be sure to maintain those during restoration.
I was attempting to avoid downloading and installing 2tb, then checking if my saved games worked. Yes, the C drive had its partitions erased. But thanks for the "Format C:" suggestion—will come by soon in Delhi, and buy you a coffee. I checked online and found similar issues with Windows 10 and 11, which don’t help me since I’m using Windows 7. It wasn’t just about missing ownership or replacing files; the system failed in many folders and files. Updated: I ran Windows Repair from Tweaking.com, and it seems Junction Nodes were affected too. I performed a full repair of permissions, registry, services, and group policies, plus reinstalled the installer. Things are running okay now, but I’m still searching for something that didn’t get fixed. I hope I can get back to my old saved games, though that’s less important. If I need to reformat, maybe I’ll go back to Safe & Secure Windows 7—it’s a fully functional system now, so I’ll skip multiplayer games and anything that won’t work on Win 7. (That’s essentially just two games.) Who needs "UEFI" or "Secured Boot"? (I don’t work for federal agencies.)