Question: I have an external hard drive, changed some security settings of files, and now I am not able to access them in my other system. I am an admin in this system. ?Is there any tool that can reset all of the security settings of all contents to default?
Answer: You can do this with the GUI — take ownership and then reset everything —
Right click root folder > properties > security > advanced > owner (tab) > edit > choose your account from the list (or select from the Other Users or Groups button) and select “Replace Owner on subcontainers and objects”
There is also a “takeown” command, i.e. if the files are on a drive that you see as E: —
TAKEOWN /F E: /R /D Y
Once you have taken ownership, then you have to set the permissions; ?for this, you use ICACLS:
ICACLS “e:” /reset /T
Alternative ways of changing the permissions with ICACLS can be found with “”ICACLS /?”” as you can explicitly add your permissions