Hello, While I was fiddling with access permissions (because of the guest coming who would be using my computer), I seem to have accidentally lock myself out of my C: drive. I can still see it, but cannot delete anything, download on it, anything. The problem is, everything I touch seem to have the "access denied" message, even though I am the administrator. When I go to Users Accounts in Control Panel, there is Security Shield icon in front of manage user accounts, so I cannot undo any of the permissions/denials I had put on. What can I do to gain full functioning of my C: drive again short of sending the machine to be repaired. Thank you very much!

Hi lubenica, First, I suggest disabling UAC to check the result. To do so, follow these steps: ====================================== 1) Click Start , click Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety, and then click User Accounts.2) Click Turn User Account Control on or off.3) Click to clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box, and then click OK.4) Restart the computer. If there is any error prompting when performing the above steps, please capture a screenshot for further research. In addition, if the issue persists after disabling UAC, please use the whoami command to check the group membership for the user account: 1) Logon Windows Vista with administrator account, click Start, type cmd in the Start Search box, and press Enter. 2) In the Command Prompt, type whoami /groups > membership.txt, and press Enter. 3) In the Command Prompt, type membership.txt and press Enter to open the file. 4) Copy and paste the content of the file to the current thread. Hope it helps.

Hello, I did the EXACT same thing that lubenica did - locked myself out of my C drive by accident. I had intended to simply restrict C drive access for the guest user account, however the change carried through for my own user account. I get 'Access Denied' whenever I try to save anything to the drive, access it, etc. ALSO, many control panel items have the little Microsoft 4-color security shield next to it, and I cannot access the items (when I click on them, nothing happens - like I am restricted, but there is no pop-up message). For instance, when I click on 'Turn User Account Control on or off', nothing happens. Also, when I try to run the command prompt as Administrator, it does not work - I get a pop-up saying 'parameter is incorrect'. Basically I have no permissions on this machine at all any longer. I ran the whoami diagnostic described above, here are the results: GROUP INFORMATION----------------- Group Name Type SID Attributes ====================================== ================ ============ ==================================================Everyone Well-known group S-1-1-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupBUILTIN\Administrators Alias S-1-5-32-544 Group used for deny only BUILTIN\Users Alias S-1-5-32-545 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Well-known group S-1-5-4 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users Well-known group S-1-5-11 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\This Organization Well-known group S-1-5-15 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupLOCAL Well-known group S-1-2-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\NTLM Authentication Well-known group S-1-5-64-10 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupMandatory Label\Medium Mandatory Level Unknown SID type S-1-16-8192 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled group Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you, Stephen

Hi Stephen, According to your description and the output of the GROUP INFORMATION, I notice: 1. The account is member of Administrators group. 2. UAC is turning on in Windows Vista. 3. However, you cannot elevate the privilege. In this case, I would like to confirm if the issue occurs after you restricted C drive access for the Guest account. If so, could you provide me with the detailed steps? I would like to reproduce the issue for further research. I look forward to your reply.

slightly off topic... but I think it's worth sharing for MSFT ears... There is something definitely wrong with Vista in setting permissions. I'm running Vista Home Premium and downloaded SP1. My wife and kids all have "standard" user accounts. I am setup as administrator I do not want my kids running any Instant Messaging programs. But my wife can. I installed Yahoo IM. on program files\yahoofolder I disable inherit permissions from parent and then copy permissions. Then I add my wife's user accountand "Administrators" group as having full control, I check the box to cascade to all files/folders/etc. But when I go to the yahoomessenger.exe my wife does not have permissions. When I add her in on the EXE, Administrators lose permissions. The only way I could get this to work is by removing "Administrators" group and adding our user accounts explicitly. I'm seeing weird behaviors like this all over the place. So I have no doubt that making what might seem like a safe change to setup guests might screw things up for administrators. It's scary.

Hi TheToeJoe, Thisissue occurs because User Account Control treats members of the Administrators group as standard users. When a member of the Administrators group logs on to a Windows Vista-based computer that has User Account Control enabled, the user runs as a standard user. Standard users are members of the Users group rather than the Administrators group, and thus they have no permission to access the resource that does not grant permission to Users group.

I have also locked myself out of my c drive. I cannot switch the permissions or turn of the users. I ran the cmd and got this. GROUP INFORMATION----------------- Group Name Type SID Attributes ====================================== ================ ============ ==================================================Everyone Well-known group S-1-1-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupBUILTIN\Administrators Alias S-1-5-32-544 Group used for deny only BUILTIN\Users Alias S-1-5-32-545 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Well-known group S-1-5-4 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users Well-known group S-1-5-11 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\This Organization Well-known group S-1-5-15 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupLOCAL Well-known group S-1-2-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\NTLM Authentication Well-known group S-1-5-64-10 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupMandatory Label\Medium Mandatory Level Unknown SID type S-1-16-8192 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled group Please help. Thank you.

All - this is a cross-post from another support forum, where you can read all about my ordeal with this problem: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/693573-have-locked-myself-out-my.html In the end - just remove the HD and stick it in an enclosure - it's the only sure-fire way to fix this!! Good luck... ================================================================================== Thanks to all the concerned posts and help, and sorry for the late reply...after I got this resolved I went on a long vacation (seriously). So last month I did end up getting a 2.5 SATA HD enclosure, removed the drive, and plugged it into another laptop as a USB drive. At first I didn't have access to the drive this way either (the "f*ck!!"I yelled reverbed through my condo bldg.), however unlike before I was able to access the 'Advanced' section of the HD's security tab and re-enable full-access to the drive.After that, 2 days of major back-up activity ensued (both to a brand-new NAS drive and many DVDs). Finally, I re-installed the drive back into the original laptop to see if access would still be denied.Surprisingly, it wasn't! Apparently ulocking the drive in slave mode unlocked it for good. So, all has been back to normal with the laptop and the HD - full file access and full admin rights/UAC/system rights.Also - System Restore does now show a restore point. It's almost as one didn't show up as available before b/c I didn't have full Admin rights, but that would be weird... Anti-virus hasn't found anything otherwise.So all seems good...I'm very lucky It's funny, up until this debacle I was actually defending Vista to those that bashed it in casual conversation. It's good to know that even with technology and Vista though, busting out a screwdriver (i.e., real tools) can fix the problem.Thanks again.......

does anyone have an other solution for this. Sorry for opening a new thread i didn't search well enough befor posting

i hope that it's ok to post my solution here too. if note that somebody delete it.right click on drive> advanced> owner tab> edit> select your user> check "replace owner on subcontainers and objects"> apply> close windows explorer and reopen

Hello Joson,i have also done this stupid thing.ihave private data on c drive.my friend requested me to uselaptop.Before giving to himi have changed security settings.IN HURRY i have dined access of c drive insted of that imp folder.many security warning dialog boxes pops up but in hurry i ignore to read them all.now i can't aceess c drive .name is changed to "access denied".i can't run cmd as administrator.it givs error as"parameter incorrect".i can'tinstall microsoft fix it.i have only my account as administrator.my membership file is as fllows:GROUP INFORMATION----------------- Group Name Type SID Attributes ====================================== ================ ============ ==================================================Everyone Well-known group S-1-1-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupBUILTIN\Administrators Alias S-1-5-32-544 Group used for deny only BUILTIN\Users Alias S-1-5-32-545 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Well-known group S-1-5-4 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users Well-known group S-1-5-11 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\This Organization Well-known group S-1-5-15 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupLOCAL Well-known group S-1-2-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\NTLM Authentication Well-known group S-1-5-64-10 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupMandatory Label\Medium Mandatory Level Unknown SID type S-1-16-8192 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupPlease reply urgently.

Hello, I am having the same problem with restriction of my c: drive and need assistance with fixing it. I would appreciate anything you can do to help. Thank you.GROUP INFORMATION----------------- Group Name Type SID Attributes ====================================== ================ ============ ==================================================Everyone Well-known group S-1-1-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupBUILTIN\Administrators Alias S-1-5-32-544 Group used for deny only BUILTIN\Users Alias S-1-5-32-545 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE Well-known group S-1-5-4 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users Well-known group S-1-5-11 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\This Organization Well-known group S-1-5-15 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupLOCAL Well-known group S-1-2-0 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupNT AUTHORITY\NTLM Authentication Well-known group S-1-5-64-10 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled groupMandatory Label\Medium Mandatory Level Unknown SID type S-1-16-8192 Mandatory group, Enabled by default, Enabled group

This worked well for me try this everybody first I took the check out of the box to protect my computer & restared my computer I got my drives back :) Thank you.