Broken SID as Current Owner of Element, files locked

For whatever reason just recently, I’ve got several locked files/folder on this external drive that I can not get into. I went to check on permissions and ownership and there is a broken SID that has top-level ownership of the Element. This permission is evidently propagated thru-out the entire drive. Odd but on certain files/folders, I can change ownership on them and take ownership and reset the permissions to take the “inherited permissions”, this fixes the particular file/folder but on some other ones, I can not. I also can’t change the ownership from very top-level to replicate to all subcontainers/objects. I am not logged on as Administrator but I do have Administrator priveleges/ in the Admin Group.  

I need to unlock these locked files/folders and get into my stuff.

Ideas? 

Thank you.

PF

Welcome to the Community. What happens if you create a new folder with a full set of public permissions (Everyone, Guest) and try to move the data internally to this new folder inside the WD Elements?

Regards,