This is really weird: I have set up an existing Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7 Server) virtual machine anew again, keeping drive D: which is my data drive. Same settings as always, everything the same... But now I can't save one of my files which it did save on the same machine yesterday night! What happens is that ... The Save As dialog opens when I'm pressing CTRL + S. (very strange) If I then try to overwrite the same file from within the Save As dialog, I get an Access Denied error. If I try to manually rename the existing file from within the Save As dialog, first a dialog opens, telling me that administrative privilegues were required to perform the rename action. Confirming this I get a UAC dialog asking me if I want to allow the current application to apply changes to the machine. If I try to manually rename the existing file from within Windows Explorer, I also get prompted to confirm administrative privilegues. I never have seen this before on this machine. More information: When right-clicking into my D:\ drive and selecting the "New" sub menu item, all I get to select from is "Folder". It is not possible for me to add anything else to any directory than Folder. When creating such folder, within that new folder the New sub menu lists all possible file types then. But only there. This is because my account has been added to the ACL of this folder with full access. What's going on? I'm a member of the Administrators group. Administrators have Full Access on that drive. I have set up this VM with this same configuration about 6 times now. This only once occured to me before. I formatted the D: drive then. But I don't always want to format the D: drive. What's going on here? The D: drive has standard security settings: Administrators: Full Users: Read What's missing??? Any help is appreciated. Regards, Axel Dahmen

Hi,The cause for the symptoms is UAC. With UAC enabled, the explorer.exe is launched by using the standard user token of the administrator account. As a result, you do not have permission to create file in root folder of D drive. For more information about UAC, please refer to the following article:Inside Windows Vista User Account Controlhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.06.uac.aspxYou may create a folder in D dirve, then save the file in that folder. You should be able to create/modify files in that folder. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi, joson, UAC can't be the cause of the problem here. I have about 20 virtual machines running - all with a similar configuration, but definitively all having the same (default) rights on the D: drive. And they are all working flawlessly. Something else must be wrong. Something that has to do with Windows Server 2008 R2 setup or the Disk Management tool. There is no reason I could see why I can't access a drive after re-installing W2k8r2 which I flawlessly could do before.

"Before you install Windows SBS 2008 on a pre-existing computer, Microsoft recommends that you fully format and then repartition the hard disk drives of the pre-existing computer. By formatting and repartitioning the hard disk drives, you remove the possibility that hidden partitions remain on the drives." http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527547%28WS.10%29.aspx "As I understand it, the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) “spoofs” tools built for basic disks so they won’t overwrite dynamic volumes." http://blogs.msdn.com/jimmymay/archive/2008/12/04/disk-partition-alignment-sector-alignment-for-sql-server-part-4-essentials-cheat-sheet.aspx Hope this will prove to be of help. All your simulations didn't help so I'm very curious as well what could have happened. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, ol' Time is still a flying: and this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying.

Thanks, Shems, but I don't believe it is necessary to re-format data drives when installing the same system anew on the same computer. Please keep in mind that I'm using the default settings that apply when I've originally formatted the drive. This means that the built-in user groups are given privilegues on this drive. So when re-installing the same Windows version on the same machine again, all the SIDs keep being the same. Nothing changes. I've installed Windows on the same machines since Windows 2000, hundrets of times. I wouldn't say that I'm an administrator. I'm a software developer. So I might be missing some tiny little fact that's keeping me from using that particular drive as expected... Currently I believe there is something wrong in Windows 7 and that I have to raise a support incident on this to request a fix. But still I hope someone can tell me what I might possibly have forgotten in my setup? Regards, Axel Dahmen

Hi,Before you submit a support incident, I suggest that you temporarily disable UAC, restart the machine and check the result.If it does not work, please export the access control lists of D drive by using the cacls utility and paste the output here for research.Thanks.This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi, Joson, I'm baffled... You are right, switching off UAC did the trick.. Please excuse me being ignorant. So OK, switching off UAC allows me to access these files again. But I don't like the idea to continue working having this setting switched off. I'm working as an administrator on this machine for debugging purposes (amongst others)... Does the result of this outcome give you a clue on what might be the problem here and how it can be fixed? Your help is very much appreciated. PS: I had read Mark's article you have suggested to read but couldn't find any information in there that could point to a solution to my problem.

Hi,There are two options:1. As I mentioned earlier, you can create a folder in D drive, then save the file in that folder.2. Grant Authenticated Users the Read, Write and Modify permission for the D drive. As far as I know, this entry is included by default in the ACL of non-system drive in Windows Server 2008 R2.Hope it helps.This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

I believe we are talking at cross purposes here... You know, I know how to circumvent the problem, but that's not what I'm reaching out for. What I need to know is the cause of the current state/problem. When I re-install Windows Server 2008 R2 on that virtual machine again I might be able to access the D: drive as usual, without switching off UAC, without changing any rights. BUT ... I might as well end up with a Windows Server 2008 R2 installation showing the same problem like the current one. - Or I might end up at a customer's machine showing a similar problem which I then would need to fix there. So, what I want is to find out the cause why my current installation isn't recognizing me as being a member of the Administrators group although I am. That's what I want to find out here. Currently, I believe there might be a bug somewhere within Windows Server 2008 R2 rights management.