Windows 10 After clean install of Windows 10, how do I cleanly take ownership of my old Users folder?

[SeanEberle2]

I know this has been asked but it has been locked. I have this same issue on an external hard drive, and have tried the following that was listed. (BELOW)



Method 1: Folder permission

1. In File Explorer, right click on the documents folder.
2. Click Properties.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Click on Edit to change the permissions.
5. Click the box to allow Home Users full control.
6. Click OK and make sure the change is applied to all subfolders and files.

That should fix the problem if not try 2 method.


Method 2: Try taking ownership of the folder (and by "the" folder, I mean any one having an issue). If they are all in one folder, use that one. If it's all of them, start with C:\Users\(your username) and work from there.

To take ownership:

• Right-click the folder and go to Properties
• In Properties, go to Security (tab) > Advanced (button at the bottom) > Owner (tab)
• In the Owner tab, the current owner will be listed. Yours will likely say it's unknown but regardless, if it doesn't say your current username (and if the username is the same, just do it anyway), click Edit (button).
• Under "Change owner to:" select your current account, check the box next to "Replace owner on sub containers and objects" and click OK. Depending on all that's under the folder, this may take a long time.

After you are the current owner, you should be able to change permissions as you need.


I have done this and it doesn't seem to work. I am doing this to my music files. The only way the above worked is if I did these steps for each and every song in the specific folder. It did not work for the entire root. What am I doing wrong? I've made sure that it was on all folders, sub folders, files, etc. I'm at a loss now. Any ideas?

Continue reading...