C:\ is not accessible Access is denied

  • Thread starter Thread starter John C
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J

John C

OK I was trying to share my C: drive on this brand new HP computer so that my
wife could access it over the small Home Office network I have. when changing
the sharing options in Windows Vista Home. I am not sure quite what happen
here but now I do not have access to my own C: drive and or permissions to
change copy or move anything on it. I have the only user profile on this
machine and it is set as the administrator. I have also lost access to all
administrative capabilities and believe the registry has become corrupt
somehow.

My problem is how do I fix this without losing all the files and digital
photos I just moved onto the C: drive from our old computer which I have not
had time to burn to a CD?
 
I can't it tells me I do not have access to the c: drive. I tried moving them
back to my old computer, to the public folder, and burn them to a cd and it
tells me the same message every time.
 
John,
If the files on the busted c: drive are important and you have no backups I
would spend some money for a high safety option.

Determine what type of hard drive is installed. (SATA cable is narrow 1" ?
or Parallel PATA 2.5")
Purchase a external USB chassis from a Best Buy type place for your type of
drive.
Also purchase a replacement hard drive for your computer.
Remove the current drive (with the busted root) and install it in the
external chassis.
Install the new drive in your computer and do a complete reinstall from your
reinstall DVD you got with your machine. (If you did not get one, you will
have to discuss getting one with your computer maker, usually costs $10-20
or so, sometimes free.)

Now attach your busted drive/enclosure via the USB. You should see the drive
but maybe not any files. You will need to take ownership of the root and all
folders and then possibly set permissions to read all the files, then find
your important files and copy them to your new system (copy, not move).
After you are completely satisfied that you have everything, you can
reformat that external drive and use it as a backup destination so the cost
is not wasted.

You would also have a very good chance of recovering your system by doing a
'repair installation', again from that reinstall DVD. Make sure you say no
to anything about repartitioning or formatting the drive! While this is low
risk, things can go wrong and you can lose all contents of that drive.

You do not want to do a 'recover' from the recovery partition. This is often
accomplished by holding F11 (varies among machines and not all systems have
the option) during boot. Purpose is to restore to configuration at the time
of purchase - WILL DESTROY ALL YOUR STUFF.

Michael
Vista Home premium

John C said:
I can't share anything now I have no access to do so or permissions?
Click to expand...
 
Michael, I was kind of afraid of that. I did not get any CD's with this new
computer which is a whole 12 days old. I do have other computers in the house
that I have already dual installed hd on so I am thinking I might be able to
stick this drive as a secondary into my old machine and take ownership of the
root to get the files and more important pictures I need. Does that sound
right to you?

P.S. It would be a lot easier to use repair feature on the windows vista CD
that I don't have.
 
It sounds like you may have two problems coupled with a misunderstanding of
how Vista works. Vista has increased security over XP. Administrator
accounts work differently. You an still do everything you could do in XP you
just have to do it differently. The biggest difference is UAC.

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/security/introduction_vista_security.aspx

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Security/uac.aspx

Depending on how you moved the files from your old computer you may have to
take ownership of them and then give yourself permission to access them.

http://www.vista4beginners.com/Change-permissions-take-ownership

Note that after you take ownership of the files you may have to log off then
log on or reboot the computer before you can change the permissions.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


John C said:
I can't it tells me I do not have access to the c: drive. I tried moving
them
back to my old computer, to the public folder, and burn them to a cd and
it
tells me the same message every time.
Click to expand...
 
John,
Seems like a good option to try. I have read reports that sometimes XP
cannot see formerly Vista drives but do not recall if there were any
follow-ups on the problem, they both use NTFS so I think there should not be
any problem.

A big advantage to doing it your way would be that the drive would not be
effected. If there is a recovery partition on it (probably the second) then
when you restore it to your machine you might be able to restore to the
original condition. On some systems, somewhere in the manual there is a
procedure to create a full install disk from the recovery partition/initial
setup. This is lieu of getting the DVD from the maker. Read the fine print
on your manual and check the web site etc. (I had a Dell awhile ago that had
the instruction on a piece of cardboard that looked like a DVD).

Michael
 
John C said:
OK I was trying to share my C: drive on this brand new HP computer so that my
wife could access it over the small Home Office network I have. when changing
the sharing options in Windows Vista Home. I am not sure quite what happen
here but now I do not have access to my own C: drive and or permissions to
change copy or move anything on it. I have the only user profile on this
machine and it is set as the administrator. I have also lost access to all
administrative capabilities and believe the registry has become corrupt
somehow.

My problem is how do I fix this without losing all the files and digital
photos I just moved onto the C: drive from our old computer which I have not
had time to burn to a CD?
Click to expand...
 
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