Question : Admin has no rights to files on Server 2000 and can't take ownership

I'm attempting to move files off of a very old server without success. It appears that the admin no longer owns all the files on the server nor can it reassign rights to it or take ownership. Certain files kill the process with an error message stating that the administrator doesn't have the rights to perform either function.

I'm attempting to move the files to a new machine via an external drive. There are hundreds of thousands of files and there are a large number of files this occurs on. It is impractical to approach file transfer on a file-by-file or folder-by-folder basis.

Any ideas on how to gain ownership and assign sufficient rights to get these files copied while keeping in mind that my technical skills in this area are limited.

Thank you for your assistance.

Answer : Admin has no rights to files on Server 2000 and can't take ownership

Use NTBACKUP to move the folder(s).  NTBACKUP can always back up a file no matter the permissions.  Run NTBACKUP and click on the root of the folder(s) that you want to move and create a .BKF file.

Copy the .BKF file to the destination computer.  Run NTBACKUP there and select Restore.  Click on "Alternate Location" (if desired) and select the local root for the restore.

This should always work.   If it fails something is broken in the NTFS; use chkdsk as recommended above.