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lemonvilleFlag for New Zealand

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Allowing Folder creation and renaming, but deny deleting.

HI there,

We have a file server (Server 2008 R2) with 100,000's of files and 1000's of folders. We have problems with these folders going missing. The cause is most likely accidental cut/paste (mouse dropping) and then someone finding folders in odd places and deleting them.

We had a full control policy, now we have changed this.

- Top Level we have the Main Share called 'Development'.
- Under this there are 4 folders, Clients A-F, Clients G-L, etc.
- Under these folders are several 100 folders (E.g BusinessX) with our clients files inside including many subfolders underneath with a range of files.
- Under 'Development' I would like no one to be able to create files/folders or delete files/folders  (unless logged in as admin)
- Under Clients A-F etc folders I would like no one to be able to delete folders, they should be able to create folders however. And under the actual Client Folders (BusinessX) allowing full control.

We have a group for all employees that has been created that only serves this purpose, lets call it 'Office Employees'. I set at the top level, full control and requested that it propagate all the way down.
Then I added another Permission entry for the same group 'Office Employees' denying Create folders/files, and Delete folder permissions, I set this for 'This folder only'.
On each 'Clients A-F', G-L etc' folder, i added Deny privileges for Delete and Delete Files and Folders. This was selected for Folders and Sub-folders and also had 'only apply for this folder and folders immediately beneath' ticked.

This all works perfectly. However, when creating a folder it automatically names the folder New Folder and then when you attempt to rename it does not allow. Research suggests that under Windows permissions, Rename contains a delete which prevents this from working.

I should clarify that no user should be able to have admin privileges, even myself as I sometimes accidentally drag and drop folders as well. This should only be enabled when logged in directly to the server as Administrator (which has full control from the top).
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synetron
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i would not propagate any inheritance down the tree, instead i would set permissions at each level as such

development - read only

level 2 - read write

level 3 - full

using the groups you've already created, assign permissions directly at each level to the file folders themselves, this will ensure that a folder does not inherit an unwanted trait.
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ASKER

But I do not want to keep in mind, at each level 3 there are 100's of folders, I don't want to have to et them individually.

Additionally, my main problem is inability to allow rename and deny delete of folders.
Properties > security tab > Advanced > Effective Permissions tab

ensure Write attibutes & write extended attributes are selected but de-select Delete, change permissions and take ownership

that should allow renaming but deny delete.
maybe someone else has a better, more "global" answer, or way to batch process this. hope it helps or gets you down a good path. best of luck.
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nandit
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Hi there,

Unfortunately we had an earthquake on the 22nd Feb destroying out office which prevented me from completing the testing.

I'm sure it would have worked!
Hey guys, I'm faced with the same issue. I need to allowusers the ability to rename within a folder, but not delete. I fear theres no easy way o do this since a rename appears to be a delete function, but the above instructions I tried did not work. With the above permissions, users can create new files and make changes, but not rename.