Windows directory with no permissions

Question

I accidentally removed all permissions from a directory on a Windows 2008 server. I can see the directory when listing contents of its parent both through Windows Explorer and DOS, but I can't do anything else. No matter what I try, the system essentially acts like I'm trying to work with a directory that doesn't exist. Trying to change the permissions through Windows Explorer yields a message that the security information is not available (on the Security tab). I've also tried takeown and modifying permissions with icacls, both of which report file not found. My account is part of the Administrators group. The account that created the folder (the owner before I messed up the permissions) can't even see the directory when listing contents of its parent. dir /q reports the owner of the directory as "...". Is there anything that can be done here or is this directory lost?

Answer 1

The solution here was to log in using the local administrator account and run takeown /F on the directory in question. From there, I was able to reset the permissions of the directory and all of its contents.