Directory.CreateDirectory access to path is denied?

Question

I have server-client application, it's a file manager
my problem is when I go inside a folder which requires access control like system folders, it becomes to read-only, but I need to move/delete or create new folder, how can I get the permission to do that?

here's how I create a new folder at the server side

public void NewFolder(string path)
    {
        try
        {
            string name = @"\New Folder";
            string current = name;
            int i = 0;
            while (Directory.Exists(path + current))
            {
                i++;
                current = String.Format("{0} {1}", name, i);
            }
            Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current);
            Explore(path); //this line is to refresh the items in the client side after creating the new folder
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            sendInfo(e.Message, "error");
        }
    }

Answer 1

There are often directories on a drive that even a user with administrator privileges cannot access. A directory with a name like "HDDRecovery" is quite likely to be troublesome like this. Surely it contains sensitive data that helps the user recover from disk failure. Another directory that fits this category is "c:\system volume information", it contains restore point data.

An admin can change the permissions on folders like this. But of course that doesn't solve the real problem nor is it a wise thing to do. Your user can't and shouldn't. Be sure to write code that deals with permission problems like this, simply catch the IOExeption. Keep the user out of trouble by never showing a directory that has the Hidden or System attribute set. They are the "don't mess with me" attributes.

Answer 2

If you want to remove directory read-only attribute use this: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vblanguage/thread/cb75ea00-f9c1-41e5-ac8e-296c302827a4

If you want to access system folders you can run your program as local administrator.

Answer 3

I also ran into an issue similar to this, but I was able to manually navigate through Windows Explorer and create directories.

However, my web app, running in VS on my laptop, hosted through my local IIS and not the built-in IIS deal for VS, was triggering the Access Denied issue.

So when I was hitting the error in code, I drilled down to glean more data from the System.Environment object and found the user, which of course was the App Pool that my app was running under in IIS.

So I opened IIS and opened the Advanced Settings for the app pool in question and changed the Identity to run under Network Service. Click OK. "cmd -> iisreset" for good measure. Try the app again, and SUCCESS!!!!

Answer 4

I had a similar problem (asp.net MVC vs2017) with this code:

Directory.CreateDirectory("~/temp");

Here is my solution:

// Create path on your web server
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/temp"));

Answer 5

I had the same issue when creating a directory. I used DirectorySecurity as shown below:

DirectorySecurity securityRules = new DirectorySecurity();
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(@"Domain\AdminAccount1", FileSystemRights.Read, AccessControlType.Allow));
securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(@"Domain\YourAppAllowedGroup", FileSystemRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));

DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current, securityRules);

Also keep in mind about the security as explained by Hans Passant's answer.

Full details can be found on MSDN.

So the complete code:

public void NewFolder(string path)
{
    try
    {
        string name = @"\New Folder";
        string current = name;
        int i = 0;
        while (Directory.Exists(path + current))
        {
            i++;
            current = String.Format("{0} {1}", name, i);
        }
        //Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current);
        DirectorySecurity securityRules = new DirectorySecurity();
        securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(@"Domain\AdminAccount1", FileSystemRights.Read, AccessControlType.Allow));
        securityRules.AddAccessRule(new FileSystemAccessRule(@"Domain\YourAppAllowedGroup", FileSystemRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));

        DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(path + current, securityRules);

        Explore(path); //this line is to refresh the items in the client side after creating the new folder
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        sendInfo(e.Message, "error");
    }
}

Answer 6

My suspicion is that when you are running the application in client/server mode, the server portion needs to be running as Administrator, in addition to possibly removing read-only or system flags, to be able to do what you want.

That said, I agree with @HansPassant- it sounds like what you are trying to do is ill-advised.

Answer 7

Solved: Directory created on remote server using below code & setting.

Share folder and give the full permission rights also in Advance setting in the folder.

DirectoryInfo di = Directory.CreateDirectory(@"\\191.168.01.01\Test\Test1");

Test is destination folder where to create new Test1 folder(directory)