I was working late around 3:00 am (I must of been totally out of it) and right before I finished working I decided to right click on my drive C: and looked at the property tabs. I then headed over to the "Security" tab and saw settings for: Authenticated Users System AAD (Presario\AAD) Administrators (Presario\Aministrators) I then proceeded to check the box with "Full Control" allow for each account, but then I re-alised that I shoud of not done that. So I quickly clicked on "Full Control" deny thinking that it would reset the allow options back accordingly/default. I then restarted my computer and later found out that I had "Denied Access" to all users/accounts from accessing my C:\ drive even in the admin account. I totally mis-caculated the power of Vista, totally...:( By the way my Vista is the retaill version of Vista Ultimate, and I hope that if it comes down to a reinstall/recover it would not delete my saved files. I have tried the following at the cmd. promt but I still get "Access Denied" after login into the Admin account: takeown /F 1-Saved /r /d y <C:\1-Saved> /grant administrators:F /t /c net user administrator /active:yes I also tried: MSCONFIG and clicked on the tools tab. Scrolled down to (dissable uac), and then clicked the (launch) button, but the cmd box says: "Access Denied" C:\Users\Administrator> It seems that no matter what I try to do I cannot have access to my drive C: even as the Admin, I cannot create new acounts even though I'm the only admin. I just need to get into my files in the C:\1-Saved directory. Any help/tips on this matter is truly appreciated...

Success! I can't believe it but I was able to take back full ownership of my C: drive and got all 37gb of my stuff back. I thank those that tried to help me on other forums and gave me clues to fix the problem. Below are the steps as to how I made It work for my retail version of Vista Ultimate. These steps might help some else with a similar UAC/ACL complete root "Access Denied" issues to the point where even if you are logged into your Admin account it still doesn't let you create accounts or modify any important settings/permissions etc. Step 1: Clicked: Start Menu Click: Run Type: net user administrator /active:yes Close All Other Applications And Reboot Your System. Step 2: Click/Login To The Administrator Account. Clicked: Start Menu Click: Run Type: Regedit Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\System Right Click On: EnableLUA Click: Modify Change: Value Data To A 0 Click: OK Step 3: Go Back To The Root Folders In The Registry Editor. Right Click On: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Click: Permissions Click: CREATOR OWNER Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: SYSTEM Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: Administrators Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click On Users Click: Remove Click: Your Account Name If It Shows Click: Remove Click: OK Step 4: Right Click On: HKEY_CURRENT_USER Click: Permissions Click: SYSTEM Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: Administrators Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: OK Step 5: Right Click On: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Click: Permissions Click: Everyone Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: RESTRICTED Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: SYSTEM Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: Administrators Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: OK Step 6: Right Click On: HKEY_USERS Click: Permissions Click: Everyone Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: RESTRICTED Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: SYSTEM Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: Administrators Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click On Users If It Shows Click: Remove Click: Your Account Name If It Shows Click: Remove Click: OK Step 7: Right Click On: HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG Click: Permissions Click: CREATOR OWNER Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: Administrators Check: All Allow Boxes Click: Apply Click: OK Close Registry Editor And All Other Applications And Reboot Your System. Step 8: Click/Login To The Available Regular/Owner Account. Clicked: Start Menu Click: Control Panel Click: Add Or Remove User Acounts Create A New User Account And Logoff. Close Registry Editor And All Other Applications And Reboot Your System. Step 9: Click/Login To Your New Created Account. Right Click On The Drive Or Directory You Lost Access To. Click: Properties Click: Security Click: Advance At The Permissions Tab. Click: Edit Click: Add Type The Name Of The Recently New Created Account. Click: Check Names Your New Account Name Should Fully Show Up. Click: OK A Permission Screen Should Show Up. Click On The Allow Box Where It Says Full Control. Where It Says "Apply To:" Choose The "This Folder, Subfolders And Files" Option. Click: OK Again At The Permissions Tab Click On Your New Created Account. Click: Apply Click Yes On The Security Popup To Change Your Allow Permissions. If Errors Occur Just Click Continue. Once The Process Finishes, Reboot Your System And Login To Your New Account. You Should Now Have Access Back Into Your Hard Drive Or Directory. Note: There Maybe Better/Shorter Ways Out There To Do This But In My Situation They Were Not Working. The Above Steps Are What Worked For Me But May Not Work For You. Please Make Sure You Are Having Similar Issues To Mine Before Trying The Above Steps...

After you enabled the Administrator account, what password did you use to logon to it??