Drupal 7.21 install error — failed to open stream

Question

I am trying to install Drupal onto a server. I had originally installed 7.22, found errors, read that I should instead install 7.21 and upgrade, so I attempted that but am now receiving the following error at the Configure Site page of the install process. I am installing with root authority, so I am stumped as to why I am getting a permissions error. I have redacted the actual database username and replaced with [database username].

Warning: fopen(D:\Webs[database username]\drupal-7.21/sites/default/settings.php) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in drupal_rewrite_settings() (line 652 of D:\Webs[database username]\drupal-7.21\includes\install.inc).

Thank you so much for any help, I really don't know what else to try! As a note, I do still have the default sites folder on the server from when I installed 7.22. I have renamed it to "oldsites" because it will not allow me to delete it from the server.

Answer 1

Drupal needs permissions to write to the sites/default/settings.php file during install...make sure your web server has the correct permissions on that file and you should be good to go.

Also, try it with 7.22 (not 7.21), there's no good reason to install 7.21 and upgrade. I've installed loads of 7.22 sites on loads of different servers and never once had a problem