Permissions Question – DVD Backup Documents/Pictures

I have a friend that was running the Windows 7 RC and of course left it to the last minute before switching to the full version. Before they switched they were having a lot of trouble maintaining stability, they couldn’t run backup they couldn’t really do a lot but Nero was still stable for the most part.

They made a backup of their files on to a DVD and everything copied on correctly. They verified the files were on the disc and accessible before they formatted the drive. Now they are running the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium and can only access certain folders, other folders below a certain directory are reported as empty e.g. My Pictures, Documents etc. Anything they copied directly from the C drive e.g. email backups are accessible.

To me this appears like a permissions issue and shouldn’t be too difficult to correct but with them being two hours away and not being the easiest person to give directions to over the phone I thought I’d post out the question here collect my thoughts and try again. I’m hoping someone here can give me a jolt in the right direction.

I suggested they copy the files to the C:/ drive and take ownership of the files but that hasn’t worked nor has attempting to take ownership of the files while on the disc. I’d like to be able talk them through getting their files back without having to ask them to send me the backup disc to pick apart. Although that option does have its benefits for me, for them they of course put all their eggs in the on basket or DVD and have about 6 months’ worth of school work on that disc. Why do people never listen when I say backup everything critical off your machine to a USB drive and to an optical disc, don’t rely on any one backup as 100% guaranteed to work and don’t expect your hard drive to never fail.

Thanks in advance!

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

dynamik

That's pretty funny. You can't change the permissions on the disc since you need write access.

You could probably do something like make a disc image, extract the contents with WinRAR, and then you can change permissions/take ownership once the files are on the HD.

-Foxer-

It's possible that there was a permissions issue when they copied it, and if they didn't have access to the folder it may not have copied at all.

tiersten

What Foxer said. If it was a permission problem then it should complain at you. Windows doesn't support UDF ACLs the last time I looked and if it is an ISO9660 disc then it won't have ACLs either.

dynamik

tiersten wrote: »

Windows doesn't support UDF ACLs the last time I looked and if it is an ISO9660 disc then it won't have ACLs either.

Yea, obviously.

Nothing like starting out your day being wrong

Devilsbane

NTFS permissions should have been wiped out, since it isn't on an NTFS volume anymore.

If you copy a NTFS volume with ACL's to a Fat volume, the ACL's are gone because FAT doesn't support them or know what to do with them. I would think the same would be true on a CD... I don't have real world experience with it though.

aidan80

Thanks for the responses, I've run through it in my mind a few times and came to similar thoughts. Permissions shouldn't have transferred as the files are off the NTFS Volume. Now I don't know for a fact that they burnt an ISO disc or what their settings were in Nero.

I too had the initial thought of pulling the image and changing permissions from there as has been stated I'd need the ability to wright to the ACL that is assuming it was transferred which I don't think it should have. Although I really don't know what settings they used in Nero when burning that disc.

I'll try pulling a disc image and try from there. The person that did the backup confirms that all files were on the disc and readable after they had burnt the disc and before the formatted the hard drive. Once formatted they can't see anything below a certain directory.

I can see the funny side of this alright. If worst comes to worst I'll try and recover the deleted files from the hard disk itself.