Plagued by "read Only" i can't get rid of

[John Schroeder]

About a week ago, I started having random unexplained
problems accessing files and folders on my XP Pro system
(XP Pro version 5.1.2600 with all the latest updates)



I was checking various things and then checked the
properties of a folder on my hard drive. (In Explorer,
right click on a folder, select properties) The "Read
Only" box was filled in with green. It was a green box
rather than a check mark, which I assume means that some of
the files/subfolders contained in this folder are read
only. I clicked on the read only box and the green
disappeared, and I clicked on the "Apply" button. A dialog
came up saying it would take 10 minutes to change the
attributes of all the file and subfolders and it stayed up
for maybe 2 minutes while the disk light flickerd etc.
Then everything settled down and the Read Only box was
empty, so I thought I was ok.



Not so fast I tried a program that had failed prior to
removing the Read Only attribute, and it failed again. I
went back to Explorer and looked at the properties of that
file and the "Read Only" box was checked again! I even
went to a command promprt in that folder and typed



ATTRIB -R *.* /S



It went off and lit the disk lite up for minute or so and
came back. When I typed



ATTRIB *.* /S



(no -R this time) it show all the files/subfolders and not
one was marked Read Only.



So I went back to Explorer again only to see the Read Only
box again was filled in with green. ARRRRGH!



Yesterday, I installed Norton SystemWorks 2004 with Anti
Virus ( I had been using SystemWorks 2003 with AV all
along). It installed ok and everything seemed fine. I
went into Outlook , read email, sent email, all with Virus
Checking on and no problems.



This morning I went into Outlook and started getting
messages from Norton that it couldn't access my TEMP/TMP
folders. I went to the Symantec Web Site for help and
their KB said "The error can be caused if the Windows
temporary folder is full or has been corrupted. "

I checked the folder the environment variable TEMP and TMP
pointed to and was able to delete all but one file in it.
That didn't help. I ran chkdsk /f /v on a fresh boot and
no errors were reported. Still can't get back rid of the
Norton message and the TEMP folder still has a green box
next to the "Read Only" attribute

I checked further and saw that files on a USB hard drive
attached to this machine are also flagged with a funny red
only.

I don't know what to do next, except back up and reformat
and re-install. I sure hope someone here has a better
answer than that!

BTW, The machine is a Dell Latitude C840 laptop with 512
mb RAM and 40 gb Hard drive. Xp came installed on the box
and I have been diligent about installing both Windows and
AV updates. One thing that is different is that I
unstalled Office XP 2002 a few weeks ago. MMMMM.....

Thanks for reading. All comments, ideas, appreciated.

John

PS And, yes, I have the latest Virus defs from norton and
ran a full scan - no problems.

 

[__Jan]

Hello John,

| In Explorer, right click on a folder, select properties
| The "Read Only" box was filled in with green.
| It was a green box rather than a check mark...

I suggest you read this
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:-
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=326549
"You Cannot View or Change the Read-Only or
System Attribute of Folders"

Jan

 

[Guest]

Jan

I read that. But I am not worried about why i can;t reset
the read only in Explorer. But programs, such as Norton's
Anti Virus are failing. Another program that tries to get
an exclusive lock on a file failed. These programs used to
work. My initial guess was that the read only flag was
getting in their way. Maybe not. But what is? I am
running with Administrator rights and have "full control"
privileges.

I have recently installed two XP Hot Fixes. I wonder if
they triggered some setting for security that I can't see.
Has anyone seen this? HHHHHEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!

Thanks

John

 

[Rob Schneider]

Some comments/questions which may help you:
1. some program is making the permissions change.
2. what programs are you referring to as "another program"? Is it making
permission changes? What is the name of "a program that had failed
prior to ... "?
3. It is my very strong hunch (very strong) that the root-cause of your
problem has nothing to do with the Microsoft Windows update you
installed. Look elsewhere.
4. Look at task manager and see what programs and processes are running
that may be candidates to changing permissions.
5. Have you checked for "spy" programs, with something like Ad-aware?
6. Specifically, what are the folder names and file names where you
observe these problems?
7. Norton System Works is more than just virus protection (as I
understand). What other "helpful" utilities have you installed? What
do they do?
8. Under what ID is this Norton program running? The logged-in ID?
What permissions are applied to the TEMP/TMP folders?
9. Is the USB drive having a root-cause problem affect? Do you have
these issues when this device is not connected?
10. Reinstallation of XP is drastic and should be deferred until you
know the root-cause. Odds are installing the same software back in
again with the same configuration (which you are likely to do) will only
result in the same issue.