Windows permissions on dual boot systems

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davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by davewilk »

In my machine, I have two hard disks. The first uses unlimited primaries and contains only the OS's. The second contains data (in two partitions) and is used by all the boot configurations.

Right now I have just two boot configurations - Windows 7 and Windows 8. When I boot to the Windows 8 system, I am unable to access most folders in the data partition due to permission issues.

How do people deal with this?

The strange thing is, I don't remember having this problem before. At various times I have had XP/Vista, and XP/Win7 without encountering these permission issues.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

What permissions are set on the folders you can't access normally? You could try adding "Everyone" to them.
tas3086
Posts: 317
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:15 pm

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by tas3086 »

I have a similar setup, and each (widows) system has the same SYSTEM NAME and same user login name.
Fat file systems are no problems, NTFS needs some help. Don't know about Linux, but I never had problems.
DOS/NTFS/TBOS makes it a little more difficult, I need to run the following BAT file on Windows to get access back after writing to NTFS files.
Good Luck.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rem must be run as administrator
set /p in=Enter Directory to process default is I:\* :
set user=LOGIN_ID
rem Enter your userid above....
rem Set your default drive below
if %in%.==. set in=I:\*
rem add /r for recursion below /a will set to admin group - nothing to current user
takeown /f "%in%"
rem add /t for recursion below
icacls "%in%" /grant %user%:F
exit
davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by davewilk »

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> What permissions are set on the folders you can't access normally? You
> could try adding "Everyone" to them.

On Windows 8 the owner and permissions are reported as a GUID, because the Windows 7 machine on which the files were created is not known.

I suppose I could go to the Windows 7 machine and give "Everyone" full permissions, but this would defeat the whole purpose of permissions.

One machine on which I want to do this is my HTPC which I run under a normal Windows account, so that my family cannot mess up the system.

I would have thought that this common data drive/partition scenario was very common for dual booters.
DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by DrTeeth »

I have a similar setup to the OP. I have 3 flavours of windows installed and 5 Linux distros and have never run into this problem. All the windows installs use the same username and password. TBH, permissions are a real PITA on windows and have been the cause of much unexpected behaviour. I just open up my 2 data disks (5 partitions in total) permissions-wise. If I do not want for anybody else to have access, I encrypt.

Good luck!

DrT
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

davewilk wrote:
> I suppose I could go to the Windows 7 machine and give "Everyone" full
> permissions, but this would defeat the whole purpose of permissions.
>
> One machine on which I want to do this is my HTPC which I run under a normal Windows
> account, so that my family cannot mess up the system.

You could try adding permissions for the appropriate user/administrator to that drive/folder for Windows 8 and see if that helps. For example, add permission to your administrator account.

>
> I would have thought that this common data drive/partition scenario was very common
> for dual booters.

It is. I've always used the standard permissions on my multi-boot systems and never had any problems with it in Windows. When using IFD/IFL I have run into access issues (depending on where the file was saved).
davewilk
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2013 12:59 pm

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by davewilk »

tas3086 wrote:
> I have a similar setup, and each (widows) system has the same SYSTEM NAME
> and same user login name.
> Fat file systems are no problems, NTFS needs some help. Don't know about
> Linux, but I never had problems.
> DOS/NTFS/TBOS makes it a little more difficult, I need to run the following
> BAT file on Windows to get access back after writing to NTFS files.
> Good Luck.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> rem must be run as administrator
> set /p in=Enter Directory to process default is I:\* :
> set user=LOGIN_ID
> rem Enter your userid above....
> rem Set your default drive below
> if %in%.==. set in=I:\*
> rem add /r for recursion below /a will set to admin group -
> nothing to current user
> takeown /f "%in%"
> rem add /t for recursion below
> icacls "%in%" /grant %user%:F
> exit

Thanks for the response, and please excuse delay replying. I might try your script, though it makes me nervous. For now at least it is important for me not to hose the Windows 7 machine.

What does having the same Computer Name and User name do for you? I actually do not have that. I could easily make the Computer names the same, but on the Windows 8 machine I am using a "Microsoft Account".

I guess I was hoping that it would be possible to give all administrators on either machine access to all the files. That would be sufficient for me.
gpsmikey
Posts: 20
Joined: Sun May 27, 2012 1:19 am
Location: Kirkland, WA, USA, Earth

Re: Windows permissions on dual boot systems

Post by gpsmikey »

Not sure on Win 8, but I have run into the same issue with XP and 7 - after doing a bunch of research, I finally understand (I think) how this all works. You really exist as a SID (Security Identifier). Those SID's are generated via some strange forumula (been a while since I looked into all this). Bottom line is that even with the same machine and user name, you are not the same SID, therefore you are a different user. I ended up just granting "everyone" access to the drives although, you could also "take ownership" of the files or add your new self to the access list as others have suggested. Another trap door to watch out for - if you have any encrypted files, make sure you have the key on removable media somewhere - I have seen horror stories from people who had encrypted files on another drive, had not imaged their system drive and when it crashed, simply re-installed windows again with the same system name and user name, only to discover to their horror that the newly created "same user name" was not the same SID as the old one and they could not open their encrypted files. Prior to XP, you were forced to have a DRA (Designated Recovery agent that could also decode the files). In XP and later, you are not forced to do that - you can be the only one with the key and if the SID changes you are SOL.

mikey
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