Folder Redirection Blunder

[itschad]

I just came to the realization that my backup wasnt working correctly. I looked to see why and have figured out that I made what I consider a big mistake when I setup folder redirection. I failed to uncheck the "give user exclusive rights" option and now as an administrator I am unable to go in and backup the files.

 

I just unticked the option in group policy. However, will this fix this issue? The only other way I can think to fix it is to go into each users folder and take ownership on their my documents and desktop folder and then give them full control. I just hate to think about doing this 600 times.....

 

Is there an easier way I am missing?

 

Thanks

Chad

[Azhibberd]

Check this script if you do a search on the forums you will find plenty , Although personally i've always used excel and batch scripts to do this. this is plenty of chat about it on forums though

 

Reset the file permissions on homedrives

[Netman]

You can use NTFSFix from Wisesoft: http://www.wisesoft.co.uk/software/ntfsfix/default.aspx. Excellent tool and free too - just remember it needs to run on the server itself...

[itschad]

I appreciate the replies and really like the NTFSFix program.

 

However, here is the problem. I do not have rights to the folders. I can get into the named folders, but not the "My Documents" or "Desktop" folders inside of it.

 

Lets say a teachers login name is JSmith. They have a folder named E:\Shared\JSmith\ Inside these folders are a my documents folder and a desktop folder. I can access the JSmith folder but can not access the folders inside. So anytime I try to change permissions I get a message that I do not have the ability to do so. Is there something I am missing.

 

Thanks

Chad

[Diello]

You'll need to take ownership of the file first as you don't have permissions ( How to take ownership of a file or a folder in Windows XP ) - then you can use NTFSFix (or similar) to reset the permissions.

 

I've also had no trouble running NTFSFix from a workstation - just recently done it with our new W2k8 servers as didn't want to have to install .net FW v1 on there.

[bmdixon]

I actually had this problem today too! I've posted here how i fixed it, but it does take a long time to make sure everything is inheriting permissions properly. (once you take ownership the permissions on that folder will be reset)

NTFSFix is a fantastic tool, highly recommend for adding/editing permissions on large number of folders, especially if you need them to be different (ie different users).

Hope that helps

[itschad]

Thanks BMDixon I figure its going to take a while to fix something that was such a small thing to have done correctly.

 

I have over 1000 folders I have to set the rights on.......I could only imagine having to do that manually.

 

Chad

[srochford]

What software are you using to run the backup? It shouldn't fail just because "you" don't have rights to the folders. there is a special privilege (SeBackupPrivilege - details here which can be given to an account which allows it to bypass file and directory permissions - make sure that the account running your backup software has that privilege.

 

If you use robocopy to backup then the /b switch tells robocopy to temporarily use the backup privilege so that it can backup files/folders to which the account running the job normally doesn't have access.

 

Using the backup privilege is important - it's very easy for a user to just reset permissions on their own files either accidentally or deliberately.

[Innovation_Dan]

What software are you using to run the backup? It shouldn't fail just because "you" don't have rights to the folders.

 

Agreed. The "Backup Operators" builtin security group should give permissions to run the backup on any folder, regardless of owner or permissions.

 

If you really need to take ownership tho, you might want to download Microsoft's Subinacls program which allows you to do batch ownership changes on folders.

 

We had to do this on one of our sites because the local admin moved the redirection location, but killed off the folders on the old location and the redirects kept failing until we recreated the directory structure.