Windows XP Read only File Attribute

[Christopher Rose]

I have a windows XP xp Professional SP1 machine that has a
directory I am having problems with. No matter how many
times I clear the read only file attribute, it keeps
coming back! I have used the GUI AND a command prompt
attrib command to reset them to read only. This directory
contains a huge number of files (about 4000). This is
extremley frustrating! I need to do some operations on
these files but can't because they are read only! I am
logged in as admin and yes the permissions are correct. Is
this a known bug in XP?

Any help appreciated

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Kevin K]

Hi Christopher,

Does your hard drive use the NTFS file system? (To find out, open My
Computer and right-click on your hard drive and choose properties.)

If you are using NTFS, look at the read only checkbox again. You will see
that it is grayed out, meaning it is neither checked or unchecked. This is
because on a NTFS drive each user on the computer has their own set of
permissions for each folder. One of these permissions is the ability to
write. Only on a Fat or FAT32 drive would the read only attribute be used.

For more information about file permissions, read Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article:
HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows
XP (308418)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418