backup of remote operating system drive caused nightmare

Hi,

I wanted to share my experience with Windows 8.1 and doing a "quick" backup of the files and folders on another installations HDD prior to some work on that "other" installation.

Scenario:

Computer A: My computer = Windows 8.1 fully patched
Computer B: Other computer = Windows 8.0 fully patched (apart from 8.1)

• Removed HDD from Computer B in order to check files system and copy users files and folders prior to some clean-up work
• Placed HDD into computer A and it came up as drive K
• Accessed the K drive .\users\userA folder
• Got told I did not have permission etc. Do you want access Y/N - Clicked Y
• Waited about 2 minutes for it to think about it
• All good - copied documents and pictures etc to temporary holding area on Computer A
• Removed drive of B and put it back into Computer B
• Booted up
• Got to log on screen
• Logged on to computer B

then all the problems started!

• Start screen in computer B was totally empty
• Could not even access the "Desktop"

What had happened is that my Computer (A) had changed the ACL of the HDD for B and removed the permissions (or screwed them up) for the user of operating system B

Managed to run the task manager on B and opened a command prompt

• ran icacls c:/ * /T /Q /C /RESET - got loads of "access denied" bust also I guess is reset a lot as well (not sure if I needed to do this though)
• At same time ran explorer and changed ownership of c:\users\userA back to "userA"
• Gave UserA full control of both c:\users\userA and c:\users\public and all their subordinates

I then went back in to the Windows 8 "Start" and everything was back. Tested an installation of some software to make sure all was well with other folders (like program files and programdata and system temp. All seems to be good. Rebooted and all seems to be good.

The desktop was also back

The questions are:

• Why the hell did my Windows 8.1 screw up the permissions so badly on this drive from computer B
• If it should happen again or happen to someone else what is the correct list of actions to restore things back to the way they ought to be

For me. I will never use Windows 8.1 to look at the user folder of a Windows 8 / 8.1 machine ever again. I will revert back to using Hiren or just image the machines partition using macrium. Shame though as for this relatively simple task THAT SHOULD WORK MICROSOFT!!! it will add 5-10 minutes of rebooting and faffing just to copy a couple of folders and use what is essentially an illegal copy of WinPE.

What a mare!

Cheers
Smip

Forgot to say, Windows tells you "you do not have permission to that folder". You click OK and it gives you access. What's that all about then? It should maybe say "You don't currently have access to this folder as it is from a different installation of Windows. You can be granted access but it will destroy the access control list of this folder in the original operating system"

:-(