[SOLVED] Why windows PC asks for admin permission when deleteting from non- OS drive?

Ashvin Srinivasan

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Nov 1, 2020
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My PC suddenly started asking for administrator privilege when deleting. This happened after i installed new NVME ssd and copied my files from my old hdd to it.
My OS is in C: drive but admin privilege is required in other drives too.

This problem appears both in win 10 and 11. Help Anyone..
 
Solution
Unless you cloned Windows, even if you think you're using the same user account, Windows makes a unique ID for each account regardless. By default users can't access any one else's user folder.
Given this: "I just copy pasted everything including C drive. "

This system is horribly broken, which is why I said STOP to deleting anything more.
You can't swap a Windows install to a new drive like that.
All users still have permission to read data from most folders, and likely Windows preserved the access list when you copied the data over. Since deleting is a write action and users don't have write permission for things outside of their user folder in the C:\ drive, it's going to ask for admin permissions when deleting things.

EDIT: Going by https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/tr...-security/permissions-on-copying-moving-files , there are some rules in place when copying stuff over and how permissions are preserved
Additionally, note the following rules:
  • The Everyone group is granted Allow Full Control permissions to the root of each NTFS drive.
  • Deny permissions always take precedence over Allow permissions.
  • Explicit permissions take precedence over inherited permissions.
  • If NTFS permissions conflict, for example, if group and user permissions are contradictory, the most liberal permissions take precedence.
  • Permissions are cumulative.
Points 2 and 3 likely preserved the denial of write permissions.
 

Ashvin Srinivasan

Reputable
Nov 1, 2020
29
0
4,530
All users still have permission to read data from most folders, and likely Windows preserved the access list when you copied the data over. Since deleting is a write action and users don't have write permission for things outside of their user folder in the C:\ drive, it's going to ask for admin permissions when deleting things.
Can this be modified so that deleting ( non os files ) does not require admin privilege?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
You probably should have cloned the hdd onto the nvme as then you wouldn't have permission problems.

Windows can be picky, even though You yourself made the files it knows its not same user. I feel users have longer identifications than what we see and its likely the differences are enough that windows does this.

If you reinstall windows and attach an old drive, it does the same thing. You should be able to take ownership but it depends, what did you copy? what files? where they in a user folder? WIndows knows they are system files.
 
Can this be modified so that deleting ( non os files ) does not require admin privilege?
Messing with the permissions where Windows is installed, regardless if you're using that drive to boot into Windows, is a nightmare to try handle and is not worth the time doing it.

If you're trying to pull your user data from the old install, then just copy the data over. You'll only need admin privileges to access the folder but once you access it, the permissions tend to stick. When you're done copying the data, reformat the old drive.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Unless you cloned Windows, even if you think you're using the same user account, Windows makes a unique ID for each account regardless. By default users can't access any one else's user folder.
Given this: "I just copy pasted everything including C drive. "

This system is horribly broken, which is why I said STOP to deleting anything more.
You can't swap a Windows install to a new drive like that.
 
Solution
Given this: "I just copy pasted everything including C drive. "

This system is horribly broken, which is why I said STOP to deleting anything more.
You can't swap a Windows install to a new drive like that.
System folders and things that are already in on a fresh Windows install? No, you can't. Everything else that the user adds (or at least stuff in their user folder)? Yes you can. I've done things like restoring the state of Firefox from one install to another simply by copying and pasting the right folder (but it has to happen before I launch Firefox for the first time).

Either way, I'm only interested in answering their question regarding permissions.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
System folders and things that are already in on a fresh Windows install? No, you can't. Everything else that the user adds (or at least stuff in their user folder)? Yes you can. I've done things like restoring the state of Firefox from one install to another simply by copying and pasting the right folder (but it has to happen before I launch Firefox for the first time).

Either way, I'm only interested in answering their question regarding permissions.
And reading between the lines....it is entirely unclear what has been done.
That's why I asked for the Disk Management window, as a start.