Answers/Comments inline:
Norton Disk Doctor keeps telling me that the Security Descriptors for hard
disk C are in error. However, neither Disk Doctor or the XP
"C-Properties-tools-check errors" can fix this supposed problem. I have
three questions.
1. What are they?
The NTFS file system is a journalling file system. It keeps an ongoing
log that tracks information about your files (location, permissions, etc).
"Security descriptors" are included about files that have permissions
attached to them.
Example: If you create a document on your desktop, it has security
descriptors attached to it that say you are the owner/creator of the file
and that it is stored in your personal folders. Now move that file to
another hard drive -one that every user has access to. The old security
descriptors are no longer valid and new ones are created. When you run
the XP chkdsk program it cleans up "invalid" security descriptors.
This cleanup eventually happens during normal operations. Chkdsk is a way
to clean up those details a little sooner. The appearance and cleanup of
these invalid descriptors are normal occurrences.
2. How can they be fixed?
This problem occurs because when Chkdsk is run against an NTFS volume,
chkdsk.exe may report that security descriptors are in the database that are
no longer referenced by any file or folder, and that it is removing them.
However, Chkdsk.exe just reclaims the unused security descriptors as a
housekeeping activity, and is not actually fixing any kind of problem.
3. Are they even of any importance since I am the only person using my
computer?
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows. Fortunately, this
error message is an informational message, and can be safely ignored.
Side Note:
All NTFS volumes contain a security descriptor database. This database is
populated with security identifiers that represent unique permission
settings applied to files and folders. When files or folders have unique
NTFS permissions applied, NTFS stores a unique security descriptor once on
the volume, and also stores a pointer to the security descriptor on any file
or folder that references it.
If files or folders no longer use that unique security descriptor, NTFS does
not remove the unique security descriptor from the database, but instead,
keeps it cached. Like any caching strategy, you want to keep the cached
information as long as possible because it may be used again.
To determine if more serious problems exist before scheduling or running
chkdsk.exe with the /f switch, run chkntfs <drive letter>:. If this command
reports that dirty bit is set, there may be real damage that needs to be
fixed.
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