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I've been having problems with permissions on my D: drive, so not my system volume. I was thinking I could copy the contents of my D: partition onto my external drive, format D: and copy the files back.

However, I'm just wondering if the permissions / ownership will remain on the files and folders ?

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Thinking the best option would be to set the permissions correctly (i.e. so they work for you) - not that that is necessarily easy. Don't recall exactly, but in the same situation I may have added an EVERYONE user, giving Full control. It met my needs but is not likely an optimal method. – therube May 24 '11 at 6:36
True but I want to resize my partition and do a backup anyway. So makes sence to do all at once if poss – Jules May 24 '11 at 7:48
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Permissions / Ownership will remain between NTFS-formatted volumes by design. If you are moving to a FAT32 volume, Permissions / Ownership will be stripped from the files.

Are you able to right-click on files or folders and change the ownership and permissions?

If you need to know how, ask.

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So if I make my external drive fat32 then copy back permissions will be lost? – Jules May 24 '11 at 6:12
Thanks. Hadn't really considered that before. Note that some file manager or copy utilities may offer options in regard to ownership & permissions. – therube May 24 '11 at 6:33
If you just copy the files using explorer, the permissions will be lost moving to a FAT32 volume as the file system does not support those attributes. What utilities say they can do this? I am curious as to how that's handled by said utilities. – Dustin G. May 24 '11 at 13:39
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