Windows 10: Permissions broken and profile damaged when HD read through another computer

This topic was locked, so I'm resurrecting.


Originally posted August 2016. Issue still exists. Posted Jan '19 when recurred for me. Issue still exists in Dec 2020.


I'm a technician, and I was doing some work on a PC that required removing the HD to access files in the user profile folders in another computer. Note that I do not recall what version of Windows the source PC had, but I suspect it was WIndows 10.


So I powered down the PC, removed the HD, plugged it in to a USB adapter, and connected that to the destination PC on Windows 10. I navigated to [Driveletter]:/Users/username and had the standard message that I do not have permission to access this folder, click continue to permanently get access to this folder.


So I did. And waited for the green bar to progress along the top, then browsed the folder, copied files out, did what I needed to do.


Then I reintroduced the HD to its original PC and booted up, and things went horribly wrong. Booted to what looked like a temp profile, so I had to change permissions back before I could log back in.


Now, this was a few weeks ago, and I did wonder if I had made an error, taken ownership instead of just having Windows add permissions for me.


But it happened again on another computer a few weeks later still Aug 2016 and a few computers since.


Update Jan 19 Why would adding a new permission on a folder damage permissions for the original user in the original tower. I suspect that the required triggers for the issue is; copying from Windows 10 to Windows 10 and copying using a username on the destination computer the same as on the source computer gut instiunct, not sure if experience will prove true.


So this post is advice and question: be wary of plugging a HD into another computer and browsing to root:/Users/Username/ and, has anyone else experienced this and found a way to avoid this compound-fail.

:)

 

No permissions

Hi,

I would suggest you to right click on the user's folder for your profile and check if the permissions shows as "read only'. If this is the case, it might be causing the issue. In this case, I would suggest you to go to C:\User folder, right click on the
folder with your username and follow these steps:

• Open the properties of the main user profile folder where the files are located (such as Documents, Pictures, etc).
  
• Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
• Check the box at the bottom of this window. It is labeled "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" and then click Ok.
  

This does a one-time action that replaces the security on all the files/subfolders. It’s one-time, so you won’t find that box checked if you peek at it later. Try these steps and let us know the results for further assistance.

 

Permissions fault after viewing HD in another computer.

I'm a technician, and I was doing some work on a PC that required removing the HD to access files in the user profile folders in another computer. Note that I do not recall what version of Windows the PC had, but I suspect it was WIndows 10.

So I powered down the PC, removed the HD, plugged it in to a USB adapter, and connected that to another PC (which we will call the destination PC) which was on Windows 10. I navigated to [Driveletter]:/Users/username and had the standard message that I
do not have permission to access this folder, click continue to permanently get access to this folder.

So I did. And waited for the green bar to progress along the top, then browsed the folder, copied files out, did what I needed to do.

Then I reintroduced the HD to its original PC and booted up, and things went horribly wrong. Booted to what looked like a temp profile, so I had to change permissions back.

Now, this was a few weeks ago, and I did wonder if I had made an error, taken ownership instead of just having Windows add permissions for me.

But it happened again on another computer. In this instance, I had just removed some ransomware and was using another computer to access the HD and attempt to access original unencrypted files by volume shadow or an undelete procedure (unsuccessful).

Again, when I reintroduced the HD to the original computer, I had permissions errors again, booted to a temporary profile. When I rebooted, the profile recovered but the start-menu was cabbaged. I succeeded in recovering the system by using the upgrade
to Windows Anniversary (from version 1511) to replace Windows files, and was pleased to see that it worked, the start menu worked again.

But why (oh why, oh why) would adding a new permission on a folder damage permissions for the original user in the original tower.

So this post is advice and question: be wary of plugging a HD into another computer and browsing to root:/Users/Username/ and has anyone else experienced this, and found a way to avoid this compound-fail.

 

How did this get released before testing and why does it change all permissions without asking

Hi,

is the permission for the folders in your user profile shown as "read-only'?

If this is the case, I would suggest you to try these steps and check if they help:

• Open the properties of the main user profile folder where the files are located (such as Documents, Pictures, etc).
  
• Go to the Security tab and click Advanced.
• Check the box at the bottom of this window. It is labeled "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" and then click Ok.
  
• This does a one-time action that replaces the security on all the files/subfolders. It’s one-time, so you won’t find that box checked if you peek at it later.

Try these steps and let us know the results.