1

How can I completely reset the security and ownership for a drive (ie. all subdirectories and files)?

I'm recreating a large RAID array and I'd like to "start fresh" with the absolute default security and permissions for everything.

I believe I need to run:

icacls . /reset /T /Q

EDIT: Also, what other files should I cleanup? (ie. thumbs.db, the system .ntfs folder, etc?)

SofaKng
  • 389
  • 1
  • 11
  • 18

1 Answers1

2

Format the drive. That guarantees default security descriptors and cleans up everything else, too.

Update after comment from SofaKng:

Once you have created a fresh new volume copy everything back from your backup. Remember that permissions are not copied across volumes.

Helge Klein
  • 2,101
  • 1
  • 16
  • 22
  • The problem is that I've backed up the data to another NTFS drive. This will keep the ACLs, right? Once I copy the data back to the new drive it will still have the same ACLs (which I don't want). – SofaKng Apr 28 '11 at 11:51
  • 1
    @SofaKng: `xcopy` or `robocopy` will not copy ACLs unless you specifically tell it to. – user1686 Apr 28 '11 at 15:28
  • 1
    @SofaKng: Permissions are not retained when you copy to a different volume. See this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310316 – Helge Klein Apr 28 '11 at 19:27