Hello Everybody,I've seen many people with the same problem around here, however nobody had a solution that would have worked for me. Recently I was trying to set up a network sharing between a Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 Ultimate. As I was doing it, I kept getting a message on Windows XP that I could not access the folder because of not having privilages to the folder. So I explored a bit further into Windows 7 sharing and found something about Homegroups and such. I went into the settings changed a few things so it would not be password protected and encrypted, and still had no luck. Then I decided that I will reset the whole network and try again so I left the Homegroup, but that's where all the problems started.I tried accessing C: drive which is where I had my files that I wanted to share, and all of a sudden I could not get onto the drive. It kept saying that C:/ is not accessible, access is denied. When I click on properties it shows up as a 0 byte disk and nothing is available. Under shearing i cannot change anything. I even tried System Restore but since it's on C: it's also not accessible. I tried Safe Mode under Administrator and still nothing. I tried gaining access to the administrator user through Safe Mode Comand Prompt by this cmd, but it did not help. NET User Administrator /active:yes. Then went back to the normal Windows 7 and tried going into properties on my drive and looking for the security tab so I could grant access to the drive through permissions, but still no luck. The security tab was not even visible under properties.I tried a process that I saw on another website by downloading subinacl.exe from the microsoft website and then creating a .bat file with notepad with the following info:@echo offsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=fsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=fsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=fsubinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=fsubinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=fsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=system=fsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=system=fsubinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=system=fsubinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=system=fsubinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=system=f@Echo =========================@Echo Finished. @Echo =========================@pauseButafter the process finished, I still had no access to the files however I had access to anything passed the main C:\ directory, so I had access to C:\Users or C:\Program Files. However even though I had access to the folders I couldnot copy or do anything to the files because I did not have permission to do so. Access was denied.So then I read another message about adding a code into cmd that will grant access to the files, however that didn't help either.Perhaps someone has another code? I totally have no clue what I should do. Is there at least a way to back up my files, so I could reformat my drive? Can anybody help?

If you are resigned to reinstalling the O/S, then maybe the following will help you copy your files to a backup drive. Right-clickCommand Prompt and Run as Administrator. Then typeICACLS C:\users\peti1212 /grant Administrators:F /T /CXCOPY C:\users\peti1212"D:\peti1212-folder\" /S /CI assume C: is your inaccessible drive, D: is the backup destination drive, and your user profilename is "peti1212". Adjust if necessary.The ICACLS command should give full privileges to Administrators for every folder/file in your userprofile.The XCOPY command should then transfer your entire userprofile folder's content to a new folder on D: named peti1212-folder.I hope it works... Please review the commands first by typing: ICACLS /? and XCOPY /?

Thanks for the help. I figured out that I can access my files and copy them through Windows PowerShell, however I can use the Copy or Move command and copy or move the files to another folder, however that will only copy my files from a folder and all the other folders in that one folder will not get copied, only the files. When I tried XCOPY, this is what I got:Invalid Drive Specification0 File(s) copiedWhat should I do now?Well actually my username on the computer is "PetyurKutyur" and then I have another username "Peter", and yes I do have a D drive as well which is fully accessible, so that's where I would like to copy my files.

...? Maybe try: ICACLS C:\ /grant Administrators:F /T /CThen see if XCOPY will have access to the drive.

Nope, it's not working. Same problem again.Something got really messed up on this drive. Do you guys think if I would install Ubuntu or some Linux software on my other partition that I could copy my files that way?

Great News!!! I received an update from Microsoft today, and after installing it, I was granted access to the security tab under C:\ properties in Safe Mode and in the Administrator account. I was able to take ownership on the Administrator account, however how can I transfer the ownership to my other account as well which is an administrative account. The account is called Peter, however under the owner tab in the securty tab I cannot see Peter as a user. I only see Administrator and Administrators. I tried giving permission to both, however this did not give me permission to access my files on my Peter account.At Least I can back up my files from the Administratoraccount.Help would be greatly appreciated.Thank You!

Peter, I'm facing exacty the same problem. Hou could you get acces to the Windows update? Everytime I try to get the update I receive this message: "An unexpected eror has ocurred". Thank you for your help and good luck.

Hi Spartacusp, have you enabled your administrator account yet through CMD? If not use this step in cmd:Net user administrator /active:yesIf it doesn't work under your standard windows, try going into safe mode and doing that through command prompt.Once it's activated, restart your computer, and go to safe mode. Try to see if youhave the security tab in the Administrator account on your drive that you cannot get access to. You do this through properties.If you do take ownership through this process:Right click at the drive "c"and left click"properties"click security tap and click "edit" and click "add" and "advance"click "find now" then look below in the search results sectionscroll and click atthe name of your computer(usually showed at start menu) or try "every one" .you will be back to permissions for local disk (c) window and the name you just selected will be showed under "the group or user name" section.click at the name and go below to tick all allow in thepermission section then click "apply".click "yes" and keep clicking "continue" by ignoring any messages.This should do the job, howeverif you don't have this option under properties try goingback to standard startup into Windows 7 and run the update tool through the administrator account. Make sure you arefully connected to the internet and you can accessany website before you run windows update. If it still doesn't work,I am not sure what you could do.Hope this helps.Edit1: You could also try this:- boot with F8, go to the domain controller restore mode. (not sure what the exact name is.)- Log in- start regedit- goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies Find EnableLUA and set it to 0 Find ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin and set it to 0.restart your pc.- Now start MMC- add the snapin Computer Management - goto storage -> diskmanagement- rightclick your windows partition and click properties- goto security- click advanced- goto owner- click edit - select the owner (in my case i used my personal account who is administrator)- click mutlipe times op ok.- close MMC- reboot pc- log in normally- start regedit- restore uac settings EnableLUA = 1 and ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin = 3.It's pretty much the same thing but done a little bit different. Hope this helps.

tried all of the above.. the more you try to fix it the more things are denied.. now i cant access anything on c drive... c drive is a complete no go zone now...even in safe mode...

ok.I just did something similar to what was done in the above thread.. i rebooted in safe mode (F8) then punched in (MMC) in search. opened it and added snap in computer management/storage/disk management. i hit the properties tab on c drive and went through each tab in security section and did an advanced find all accounts i added the (every one) account to all tabs and kept saying yes some errors popped up when trying to access some files but kept hitting continue.. until the account said (every one). then i a did a reboot. it asked me about permission from my original admin account.. i said yes... now i can access all of the c drive... I'm now doing a disk recovery to a earlier point before i had the issue with the network and c drive disappearing... i will let you know if its a fix or a remedy... cheers, Chris...

yes this system i tried was a complete fix. and everything is as it should be... only having trouble with two networks coming up on screen.. home network and unidentified which stops me from going online through my router...

I'm really glad it worked for you.

Hi All, For this issue, I also found there are a KB article published and an update released: Error message when you try to access the root of a drive after you leave HomeGroup in Windows 7 Release Candidate: "Access is denied." Update for Windows 7 Release Candidate (KB972407) Hope this helps. Thanks.Nicholas Li - MSFT