Copying Files Across a Network

If you have trouble copying ANY files to Vista across a network, you need to set both the "sharing" and the "security" settings for files on the source machine. For Windows XP, for example, you first need to turn off "simple file sharing" so you can see the right security settings. The usual error message is: Destination folder access denied.

Go here to see everything you need to know about turning simple file sharing on and off (there's even a video).

Once you have simple file sharing off, you need to take ownership of the file. This works best if you use the same user name on both machines. 

Go here to see how to assign ownership to files or folders. Important: If you are assigning ownership to a folder, be sure to mark the checkbox that makes XP Replace ownership on subcontainers and objects!.

When you have done this, you may still have problems with some individual files. It's because those files somehow got marked as not inheriting permissions from their parents. I had about 20 such files scattered around the "My Documents" folder. I have no idea how they got that way (I certainly didn't do it).

It's particularly annoying that Vista doesn't give you the path to them. I don't have a fix for that. If you find one, let me know and I'll post it here.

Here is the very-hard-to-find fix that will allow those recalcitrant files to be copied:

If it's just a few files, you can set them individually using this procedure:

  1. Navigate to the file (on the source machine).
  2. Right-click on the file and select Properties.
  3. Click on the Security tab (you won't see it unless you turned off simple file sharing).
  4. Click on the Advanced button near the bottom of the window.
  5. Uncheck Inherit from parent ...  near the bottom of the next window.
  6. In the popup, select Copy.
  7. Click the Apply button.
  8. Recheck the Inherit from parent ... checkbox.
  9. Click Apply again.
  10. Click OK twice.

If you have many files that need fixing, you can do the following:

  1. Select all the files in a folder (don't select any folders-see tip below).
  2. Right click and select the Security tab
  3. If you don't see a popup, make sure the security settings include Full Control for you, then click Cancel.
  4. If you do see the popup telling you that the settings don't match, do steps 4-10 above.

In theory, all your files should now copy with no security hysteria from Vista.

TIP: Here are two ways to select all the files in a folder but not the folders contained there.

  1. If the folders are all listed first, click on the first file then shift-click on the last file.
  2. If they're mixed, or if you want to skip some files, type CTRL-A to highlight everything, then CTRL-click on the ones you don't want selected. 

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  —  Bob Ray