Cannot Remove Folder Without Being Prompted

ID: Q246023

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51, 4.0

SUMMARY

You may receive the following error message when you attempt to remove a folder that is owned by a deleted user, especially if the deleted user was the only user with Full Control permissions on the folder:

Cannot remove folder Path:
Access Denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write protected and that the file is not currently in use.

When you attempt to take ownership of the entire folder structure, you may receive an "Access denied" prompt for each subfolder. It could take a long time to process a large folder structure.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the Subinacl.exe and Xcacls.exe tools from the Microsoft Windows NT Service Resource Kit to make this process easier. For example, to remove a folder named U3 and its subfolders, use the following commands:

g:\users\testing> subinacl /subdirectories u3 /setowner=Administrator

g:\users\testing> xcacls u3 /T /G Administrator:F

Subinacl sets the owner to Administrator and Xcacls gives the Administrator account Full Control (F) permissions.

The /subdirectories switch for Subinacl.exe specifies that the tool also process subfolders. The /setowner switch specifies the account name that should be made the owner.

The /T switch for Xcacls.exe specifies that the tool also process subfolders. The /G switch means "Grant."

NOTE: There may be cases in which Subinacl does not act on a subfolder. In this case, use the /file switch in place of the /subdirectories switch, and change the owner of the one file or folder. For example:

subinacl /file u3 /setowner=Administrator

For additional information about these tools, type the following commands after you install the tools from the Resource Kit:

subinacl /help

xcacls /help

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbtool
Version : winnt:3.51,4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbinfo