Cannot Access C Drive After Deleting HomeGroup on Win7 RC
I've managed to deny myself access to the C: drive. I can boot the OS, I can view all my libraries, and I can even access some files through programs. But if I try to move or adjust a file directly, I am denied access. I'm figuring that this happened when I deleted a Homegroup I created, being it was the last thing I did before I had this issue. Please Help.
June 12th, 2009 12:26am

Tyler,Check this out, there are some things that may help.
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June 12th, 2009 2:32am

I did the same thing and had the exact same problem. Soooo frustrating!! Try this, it worked for me. Hope this helps! 1. Right click on C drive 2. Select Properties 3. Click on the Security tab 4. Click on the Advanced button 5. Click on the Owner tab 6. Click on the Edit button 7. In the Change owner to box, highlight your account 8. Check Replace owner on subcontainers and objects 9. Click on Apply 10. Click on Yes to replace all permissions 11. wait patiently :)
June 13th, 2009 3:50pm

After that try this: 1. Login in safe mode with command prompt 2. In command prompt type - NET User Administrator /active:yes 3. Start computer in normal mode and there should be an administrator account and yours, log in as the admin. 4. Log out and then log in with your account. 5. Go to control panel, administrative tools, computer management, disk management, right click on c drive and go properties. Go to the security tab and click advanced. Go to permissions tab, Change Permissions. Highlight your account and click edit, make sure all allow boxes are ticked, go ok. !!IMPORTANT!! Make sure you click apply! 6. This will bring up a small window similar to a copying one. This should fix all. Please let me know if this solves your problem.
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June 14th, 2009 2:49am

I would have done that, but I've already reformatted. I was able to back up my personal files, at least, using Windows PowerShell, which luckily allowed me to access my files. But thanks anyway! This thread might be handy should this ever happen again.
June 14th, 2009 3:20am

hey guys, im having the same problem here. the solution of you, pommy, doesnt seem to work. i get error messages when i try to acces the security tab or its even not there (administrator-account). Well i guess it only seems to help to reformat and set up windows again and the ____ to stay away from homegroups.
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June 24th, 2009 10:24am

Yes, I'm having the same problem - on Laptop and Desktop. I didn't realise how easy it is to delete a Homegroup that you don't want and don't use - or how it immediately trashes your computer. Very clever, Mr Microsoft.I've wiped and reinstalled on the laptop, and using that and the "owner" thing above, I've unlocked my USB backup drive. So I can get my key stuff up to the end-June backup off that. But that's only the laptop stuff.HOW, oh HOW, do I unlock the desktop? There's no way I want to wipe that. I put Win 7 on a separate HD in there so that I could keep all my data drives till Win 7 final. ALL those drives are now locked.
July 21st, 2009 12:19pm

I've sorted it on my machine. A tip that may be useful to some: If you have a spare partition (doesn't need to be particularly large), install Win 7 to that. Don't add any software, just use that to "unlock" the locked drives/partitions and take ownership. Then run the "repair" utility on the Win 7 DVD, and that will find and fix your original installation. You don't have to reinstall all your software and data, that way.
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July 22nd, 2009 12:06pm

I tried this, even as the administrator I'm not allowed to change the owner. For owner it says "can't show the owner now." But won't let me change it either. Won't even let me do a system recovery, says there's not enough disk space.
February 9th, 2010 6:47am

No, you can't do ANYTHING from the original installation. It's totally locked out. The only way that worked for me was to plug in a spare hard drive, install Windows 7 to that, then use that to change owner on the "original" drive C etc. It's a serious bug, and one Microsoft clearly don't know how to fix. The solution is one that I tell to everyone I advise: under NO circumstances set up a homegroup, or you'll risk losing all your stuff.
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February 9th, 2010 12:38pm

Spent the night on the phone with Dell, they are sending me a new harddrive.
February 9th, 2010 9:19pm

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