"Cannot access read-only file" blah blah blah...

[KarlTurzi]

On a Windows 2000 Professional client machine, I have a handful of .XLS files that have all of a sudden gotten the Archive attribute set (I've confirmed this also from a command prompt)... here's where it gets interesting... I cannot change the properties of these files from either the default Administrator account or from my own (which is also a full administrator account). I get an error when attempting to change the attributes that I don't have proper permissions to modify, or even open the file for that matter. Any clues???

 

[GrnEyedLdy]

Do you own the file? If not you will need to "Take Ownership", then you will need to grant yourself permissions to it.

Hope this helps.

Patty

 

[KarlTurzi]

Guess I left that part out In the ownership field in the properties for the file it displays that it is "unable to display ownership information" and when I try to take ownership of it or change the ownership to Administrator, I again encounter the issue of the error indicating that I don't have permissions to change ownership... I suppose I might consider file corruption a possibility, yet I wouldn't think that file corruption would be as orderly as this problem is, i.e., a handful of files in one folder all magically get the archive attrib set... Hmmm. Haunted?

 

[GrnEyedLdy]

KarlTurzi,

Is it possible that the file has been encrypted by the user?

Just a thought...

Patty

 

[GlenJohnson]

Can you pull up the properties for the files and see what they say? Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"He who doubts nothing, knows nothing."
Greek proverb.

 

[KarlTurzi]

Well... Nope. I can't access the file even from the user account that created it and there's no evidence that it was encrypted...

 

[GrnEyedLdy]

Can you view the permissions of the folder that contains these .xls files? If so, you could try checking the box for "Reset permissions on all child objects and enable propagation..." etc., on the Permissions page in the Advanced view.

Can't think of anything else...let us know if you get this one figured out. I'm curious

Patty

 

[KarlTurzi]

The properties show nothing significant. I do find it interesting that I am unable to view the ownership (Unable to display ownership info".

-K

 

[GlenJohnson]

Can you restore it from a backup? Won't have everything, but may be able to use it, make sure YOU have ownership and save it. Glen A. Johnson
Microsoft Certified Professional
glen@nellsgiftbox.com


"Common sense is an instinct for the truth."
Max Jacobs (1876-1944); French writer.

 

[KarlTurzi]

Well, Patty, it seems you were all pretty much right on. Somehow I overlooked (after some digging) that the user account that created these files has been deleted from the system that the physical file was located on. I did almost exactly what you said. I went to the machine that it was created on, logged on as administrator, went back a directory (which I actually created originally), reset all child permissions, then granted spefic user level access to the files in question... guess what. All better. Silly me. Duh. Like I've only been doing this for 15 years. Helps to bounce this stuff off someone else. Thanks to all.

-K