Had a user with full modify permissions to some directories on a file server. They managed to completely fubar up the permissions when trying to 1) lock it down to just them and 2) disallow other users. You can see where this is going.

The backup user and local administrator no longer had access. I attempted to take ownership using the GUI, but it would just fail saying I don’t have permissions. I even “ran as administrator” to no avail.

Command line to the rescue!

• Open Command Prompt as an Administrator
• takeown /f “directory\subdir\moredir\*.*” /r /d y