It might help to know who owns this file:
your ftp client should tell you the owner name or number.
Owner 0 is the server.
Member accounts are something like owner 20193.
All of your files should be owned by either your number or by 0. If the files you have problems with are owned by another number, there may be a larger problem.

There is one last way to take control of the files.

Download the entire directory that contains the file you have problems with to you local system.
You must be sure to get EVERYTHING!

On the server, delete the effected directory with all files and subdirectories.

Now upload the files that you backed up and all of the files will show YOU as the owner.

Since this involved the deletion of multiple files and perhaps directories, I can not guarantee that you will not lose something important. You must be very care during this process or your files may be lost.

I suggest making a full backup of your entire website prior to attempting this task.

I do not recommend that anybody attempted the solution I suggested here in any situation!

If this operation works, then you may need to tweak the permissions of some of the files that changed ownership.

Hope This Helps!

vujsa

Thanks again for your very specific suggestion but that is too risky. MamboXplorer suggests that owner of the file is '0' , i.e. the server. Deletion of Directories/files from the server which are posing problem may cause potential damage to the website. Instead of that, is it possible to uninstall the components/modules using Mambo and then upload the files (backed up already) through FTP? I have never uninstalled the components/modules using Mambo, so, I am not quite sure whether uninstalling them will simultaneously drop the database tables containing data.
If anybody has already tried the backup->delete->upload method, please tell it whether it was successful or not. Also what do you think about the method I have in my mind, i.e. uninstalling the component/modules and uploading the necessary files thereafter.
As I have already undertaken too many experimentations with this site, so I have no other option left but to take extreme care before taking a decision in this regard.
Hope this explains the scenario which compells me to put forward the same issue repeatedly.

the install and backup of mambo components can be only answered via the component writer/developer. the first part of the component installation is the creation and initialization of the needed tables and variables.

some components are badly written that they just overwrite some major parts of the database..

the uninstallation is also the writers/developers taste.. some removes all data.. some just remove the files and some creates a backup.. while there are some chance of other programmer just leaving everything behind..

I repeat what I just wrote to other topic: If you use Joomla, the most convenient way is to go to(in administration panel) site - global configuration - server and from there change the directory and file permissions to 0777. Hope this helps.