SOLVED: ERROR >> "Access Denied" with Maxtor OneTouch 4 backupsoftware

[Guest FUBARinSFO]

ROBLEM

 

When backing up a Windows XP data drive to a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus

drive, 19,452 files were not backed up ("Unable to backup 19452") On

inspection, the error messages were of the below form

 

Examples:

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ERROR >>> D:\G\Scans\\.pdf Access

denied

ERROR >>> D:\G\AZ Commercial\.exe Access

denied

ERROR >>> D:\G\AZ Commercial\.hlp Access

denied

ERROR >>> D:\G\Scans\\.xls Access denied

--------------------------------------------------

 

There was no particular pattern to the problem other than they all

seemed to be on one drive (G:) -- all kinds of files were denied, yet

others of the same type were backed up. Access was denied to some

files with a folder, while others within the same folder were backed

up.

 

 

SOLUTION

 

Add 'Everyone' to the permissions on the root (if it is not already

there), and propagate the permissions to all child folders and files.

This will allow the software to access the files,

 

 

DISCUSSION

 

Because all the problems appeared to be associated with one drive

(G:), and because this drive letter was in fact a local drive mapping

off the physical partition D: (D:\G), at first glance it appeared that

it might be associated with local drive mapping, as had been the case

with some other application software that was not able to distinguish

between local and remote drives, or would not install or load properly

from a mapped drive. The problem at this stage was posted to Maxtor/

Seagate tech support. This has confused them, and at this point it is

clear that they have not run into this problem before.

 

But on further inspection of the security status of the individual

source files themselves, I eventually noticed that some files had

multiple permissions -- Administrator, Everyone, SYSTEM, etc. -- and

some had only Administrator as the security permission. On further

testing with a sample subset, I found that the files with only

Administrator as its security privilege level would not be backed up,

whereas the files with multiple permissions would be backed up

successfully.

 

It also turned out that the files that were backed up successfully

had all their permissions merged into Everyone, but with "full

control" instead of just "Modify'. The actual specific permission

status of the files had been lost, but the effective permission level

had been attached to Everyone as a union of the source set of

permissions.

 

So it appears from this that Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus backup software

runs only at the Everyone level, and cannot access higher-level

permission files, even though the logged-on user is in fact

Administrator and the process itself has Administrator privileges.

Either that, or the files themselves have to have "Full control"

security level.

 

I didn't make an exhaustive check of this situation, so there may be

some simpler way to get the same result. At this point, since the

target backed-up file has only "Everyone" as its security group, with

merged attributes that include "Full Control", Full Control may be

necessary also (though I doubt it). I'm assuming here that just addind

"Everyone" to the root and propagating the root to the subfolders and

files will solve the "access denied" problem.

 

-- Roy Zider

 

 

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System:

 

750 GB OneTouch 4 Plus

Model STM3075040TY3E5-RK

Software version 4.02.0303 (latest as of 8/30/2009 17:34)

Maxtor Manager 4.7.0.7 (per GUI screen)

 

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

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