Taking ownership of C:\ should come with a huge warning or not be a thing

Minusorange · 11 Jan 2019 at 22:55

Don't do it, it should not even be an option for how destructive it is to windows where you can't even run the reset this PC in recovery because none of the files work any more

Fortunately using a flash boot of ubuntu I was able to save all important files but damn I could have lost everything

And yes, I was foolish enough to not do a recent backup as such it was simpler to just reinstall win10 fresh than use a 5month backup because I'd purged quite a lot in 5 months and installed a tonne of new stuff

Deleted member 77746 · 12 Jan 2019 at 12:24

Thanks for the info, why did you do it in the first place though that’s the question lol

Rroff · 12 Jan 2019 at 12:30

A little harder to do these days accidentally but it used to be possible to screw a Linux installation up the same way with a recursive chmod or rm if you accidentally hit enter after a /

Minusorange · 13 Jan 2019 at 00:10

mrbell1984 said:
Thanks for the info, why did you do it in the first place though that’s the question lol

I had some audio plugins that weren't working

They worked when I took ownership until I restarted the comp and everything went to ****

2 days to reinstall everything, also thought I'd lost some crypto but fortunately salvaged the wallet, now I'm just taking ownership of the folders the plugins are in instead of whole drive

Seem to have everything back to normal "touch wood"

Deleted member 77746 · 13 Jan 2019 at 10:10

Minusorange said:
I had some audio plugins that weren't working

They worked when I took ownership until I restarted the comp and everything went to ****

2 days to reinstall everything, also thought I'd lost some crypto but fortunately salvaged the wallet, now I'm just taking ownership of the folders the plugins are in instead of whole drive

Seem to have everything back to normal "touch wood"

Not sure why you would even touch anything to do with the root C:\ on a home machine. It's only folders inside you would generally touch if ever even needed. I never had anything to do with setting anything on the C:\ in 25 years in IT.

Minusorange · 13 Jan 2019 at 12:13

It didn't have any warnings, so I thought it would be okay

For how utterly destructive it actually is I don't even know why it's an option :confused:

andshrew · 13 Jan 2019 at 13:03

Minusorange said:
It didn't have any warnings, so I thought it would be okay

For how utterly destructive it actually is I don't even know why it's an option

By the point of being able to change ownership of something you're already deep within Advanced Security Settings and through UAC elevation which should really be warning enough that the thing you're playing around with probably needs a level of understanding as to what it is you're actually going to be doing before doing that thing. Presumably you also replaced the owner on all subcontainers and objects too for good measure.

Hard lesson learned I guess.

Deleted member 77746 · 13 Jan 2019 at 13:29

Minusorange said:
It didn't have any warnings, so I thought it would be okay

For how utterly destructive it actually is I don't even know why it's an option

It's an option for when you do need to change permissions.

Minusorange · 13 Jan 2019 at 18:00

mrbell1984 said:
It's an option for when you do need to change permissions.

I don't understand why it is an option though because it corrupts all system files, including backups and the files needed to do factory reset too and from google there seems to be zero way to reset the damage unless you do a fresh install and manage to find a way to access the files to backup the important stuff

I've somehow managed to free up 150gig though on C: since the fresh install, so there is some reward for breaking windows along with the learning experience

Raumarik · 13 Jan 2019 at 21:36

It's an option because those can occasionally be used to fix the PC - If you know what you are doing but few people ever mess about with root permissions as it's incredibly unlikely you'd need to alter them on.

Deleted member 77746 · 14 Jan 2019 at 18:16

Minusorange said:
I don't understand why it is an option though because it corrupts all system files, including backups and the files needed to do factory reset too and from google there seems to be zero way to reset the damage unless you do a fresh install and manage to find a way to access the files to backup the important stuff

I've somehow managed to free up 150gig though on C: since the fresh install, so there is some reward for breaking windows along with the learning experience

It doesn’t corrupt anything unless you touch it.