When I click on properties of a folder I need to take ownership of the security tab doesn't even appear. It only appears on folders that aren't a problem.
Yes, I did try starting at the parent folder and selecting to propagate to subfolers. All I get is "not accessible" errors on any such subfolers.
Yes I ran scandisk (from the desktop and from the repair console).
Either Vista has changed something or this filesystem is munged beyond hope of recovery.
Incidentally, I sometimes get "Folder not accessible, may have been moved or deleted" errors as well as "Access Denied" - but what does that mean? Even Bill Gates admitted Windows error messages are next to meaningless.