installed skyrim a while ago, tried to play game, realised that every time i opened the launcher it would auto detect my settings, every time i changed options in the options tab they would reset when i hit ok. data files always greyed out. i have done a FULL reinstall since, tried booting with SKSE, changed prefs in every possible location and done everything google has told me to. i played a new character in hopes of it changing something - saved (said it worked) tried to load and there were no saved files. not sure what else i can try to do.. anyone else getting the same issue or had the same issue before and fixed it? - ran 100% fine on the previous hard drive

Try to Verify Integrity of Game Cache.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

Then try to start TESV.exe as administrator. I assume you have only one Skyrim folder in your HDD.