Remove read-only attribute from folder after Windows reinstall

The problem isn't that the folder is Read Only. Rather, because your folder was created on a different installation of Windows you no longer have NTFS security permissions to access (read) the folder.

Correct this by following these steps to take ownership and then grant yourself full access to the folder.

1. Right-click the folder > Properties
2. Security tab > Advanced
3. Click Change to the right of Owner
4. Enter Users into box and click OK
5. Enable the checkbox Replace owner on subcontainers and objects then click Apply
6. If prompted that You do not have permissions to read... click Yes
7. Completely close out of the Advanced Security Settings dialog
8. Right-click the folder > Properties
9. Security tab > Edit...
10. Add...
11. Enter Users into box and click OK
12. Enable the Full Control checkbox then click OK

Do this in CMD as admin

for the folder

attrib -r c:\my-folder

and the files

attrib -r c:\my-folder\*.*

It did the job. I was having issue with PhpStorm. It wasn't able to save the project files because of the read-only status. After doing this in CMD as admin, all is well.

I posted this in Microsoft forum as well - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-files/in-windows-8-x64-can-not-remove-read-only/81ed233f-9149-4881-bb15-cf0e1ca150e3