Workspace/Geodatabase locked as read-only

[ChristinaMetherall]

Hello,

I have had a rather nasty problem for several weeks now, where every time I try to run a tool that modifies a vector file, I get the error "Workspace or Data is read only". It appears that it thinks the geodatabase is locked as read only.

However, when I go into the folder in windows, the files all appear to NOT be read only.

I thought it may be a Windows issue, because every time I open the properties of the geodatabase folder in Windows Explorer, the "read-only" tab is blue.  However, it appears that this is just a default for all folders in Windows 7, and it does not necessarily mean it is locked read-only. To confirm that the folder is not locked read only, I set the permissions to full in windows (command line) using ATTRIB and ICACLS. I run the commands to set access to full, and then viewed permissions and verified that there were full permissions. Yes, ArcGIS still returns that the error that the geodatabase is locked as read-only. I have tried re-creating the geodatabase, recopying the files into it, and I still have the same issue.

I also tried to make sure that there weren't any other processes updating the file permissions by ending my virus scan and any background processes. In addition, I have tried deleting all the locks in the geodatabase and then restarting (as well as compressing the geodatabase which apparently can also help get rid of locks).

I am currently running 64 bit Windows with Windows 7 and ArcGIS 10 with Service Pack 5 (student evaluation version).

Thanks for any help you can provide.
Christina

[WilliamCraft]

Within the same folder as your geodatabase, add an already-existing file such as a text or MS Word file; then try to edit it and save changes.  Do you get similar results when attempting to save edits to that file?  It may be that your entire volume is read-only despite what the security settings indicate within Windows.

[MichaelNesius]

This doesn't exactly solve your problem since you were having write issues prior to compressing the gdb, but:

"Once compressed, a feature class or table is read-only and cannot be edited. Compression is ideally suited to mature datasets that do not require further editing. However, if required, a compressed dataset can always be uncompressed to return it to its original, read-write format."

http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//00170000004v000000