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[SOLVED] Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

29K views 47 replies 4 participants last post by  joeten 
#1 ·
Hi

Ive stumbled across a problem that has been causing me grief for a few days now, every time I try to access my hard drive (C disk) it says, access is denied. Also, i cant edit permissions because I've lost admin rights. Ive tried many things including unlocking the system admin, this lets me access a few extra things like being able to use the sfc command in cmd, however, it doesn't allow me to access the C disk or change permission because it also has lost admin rights? I fear that this is a bad problem and I don't know how it happened. I have tried restoring to a previous date and that doesn't work either.

Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Shimin4tor
 
#3 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

The hidden admin account you are referring to is the system admin, wasnt sure what it was called, the only thing that I remember installing recently was the update for Adobe Flash which comes with McAfee Security scan plus, ive downloaded this before but i have deleted it, this new one wont allow me to delete it for some reason, probably to do with the C disk problem, I have got Norton Antivirus, is there a chance that the two are causing the issue maybe?
 
#5 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

I've just tried system restore from safe mode, however it didn't work, the hidden admin has gone and I need to update Norton Antivirus, I did a scan yesterday but it didn't find any viruses or anything except for tracking cookies which it deleted.
 
#6 ·
#7 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

I did the scanning from my normal account (which is an admin but has lost its rights), the other administrator account which appeared i think was the hidden admin. I have tried sfc /scannow from the admin account to no avail becuase it says on my normal account that "you must be an administrator running a console session in order to use the sfc utility." even though the account is an admin
 
#9 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

You should be able to set account permissions from the hidden admin account for your other accounts,just for the sake of covering all the bases can you make a new account and give it admin permissions
 
#10 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

I have had to re enable the hidden administrator through safe mode with command prompt, it disappeared from the login screen after system restore, when I logged in, it said that my system has been restored to a previous time, this time was before the problem started and before I had installed Mcafee, so Mcafee has now gone, but I'm still getting access is denied to the C disk, also, I can't make a new account because when i press the button to manage another account or anything with the admin shield symbol, nothing happens, the cursor gets a circle to show that it is doing something but quickly disappears and nothing happens. This is using the hidden admin account.
 
#12 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

re enable the hidden administrator through safe mode with command prompt, it disappeared from the login screen after system restore,
System Restore would remove the changes with adding the Hidden Admin account. So you will have to make the Hidden Admin visible again, and then go to User Profiles and make your account admin again. Then remove any permissions on the C: drive.
 
#13 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

Hi, you have a number of problems we need to clean up the past AntiVirus installs among other things, the first problem is access to the c drive. There are a number of ways to do this and they do require some user expertise.

Lets try the simple one first, we need to disable UAC so you can get to security tab under properties in c:\ drive, and set your user as full access.

I have written this to make it as simple as possible You need to boot to safe mode advanced and select the option to "repair your computer" from here we are going to select the command prompt:-

From the command prompt at the x:\sources> prompt type:-

bcdedit |find "osdevice" (press enter)

Will return the partition letter the RE has assigned (normally c:) if not change to the drive letter returned.(assume c:)

Next still at the x:\Sources> prompt type C: (press enter)

At the c:\> prompt type:- regedit.exe (press enter)

Registry editor will open select the Key:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE , then from the main menu click on "File" select "Load Hive" a sources box will open browse to C:\windows \system32\config and click on "Software".

A name hive box will open call it UAC and press OK.

The registry editor will be open and you will note a new key called "UAC" expand the + and navigate to:-

Microsoft expand the +
Next:-

Windows expand the +
Next:-

Current Version expand the +
Next:-

Policies expand the +
Next:-

Click on "system" on the right you will see a value

"EnableLua" right click on this and select "modify", in the value modify box where 1 is type 0 and OK.

(The path is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\UAC\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Policies\System)

Still in registry editor collapse the tree back to the UAC key, make sure this key is highlighted and from the main menu select "File" and click on "unload hive" agree to this and restart computer.

This will disable UAC.

Now go back to c:\drive properties, security, and grant your user full control Restart and see how you go. Post back there is more to do.
 
#15 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

OK, so I havnt got very far so far because when i enter in bcdedit |find "osdevice" it returned partition=D:
So instead of then putting in C:, i put in D: which it said Access is denied.
So i put C: in instead and then regedit.exe
This opened the registry editor. so i went to load hive on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Then, i press on the computer tab and it displays:
System Reserved (C:)
Local Disk (D:)
Boot (X:)
CD drive (E:)

When I select the system reserved (C:) it says "This folder is empty"
When I select the local disk (D:) it doesn't open, nothing happens.
When I select Boot (X:), I can get to the software folder.

There are two things called SOFTWARE here, one is a text document, the other is a File. When I select the file and type in UAC, it says this:- Cannot load X:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

When i select the text document, and type in UAC, I get this message:- Cannot load X:\Windows\System32\config\SOFTWARE.LOG: Error while loading hive.

I cannot continue from here. A few questions also, am I supposed to be using the hidden admin for this? and my PC is a custom built laptop, will this affect any of filing systems? And i didnt make it, it was PC Specialist, Im not promoting them or anything but I will say that my disk drive used to always open, took them an age to finally get it sorted out, but it still opens occasionally when I restart my PC, and mostly when there is an issue, like everytime I restart my PC now.

Edit: Also, should I have done the system repair from booting from the disk before these steps? or does it not matter?
 
#18 · (Edited)
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

Hi, you are doing this from the RE (repair your computer) option, selecting command prompt and seeing a X:sources prompt?

What happens when the RE is loaded it might not allocate the OS partition to the drive the computer has the OS on, that's why we run the bcdedit cmd, now it usually is C: you say it returned D:. Now when you try to run any cmds on D: it returns access is denied!

This should not happen in the RE, and virtually renders your computer unrepairable. See if a chkdsk will run we need to fix the acl's so at the x sources run the "osdevice" cmd again and if it returns D: at the x sources prompt type:-

chkdsk D:/f (press enter...) Ignore the error 50 message. Chkdsk will run can take a long time.

Let us know how you get on, you might have a particularly nasty root virus, this would not be repairable so prepare for a format and fresh install.

EDIT:- just had a thought do you have a copy of the OS if so boot from it and access the RE (repair your computer ) from it, might work since it would not be infected.
 
#19 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

Oh no, i've got images to show you what it has told me, it still says access is denied, and I do still own the Windows 7 home premium disc so I'm going to try that later.

A fresh install wont be too bad because I've only had my PC since Christmas and theres not much important stuff here, the large files are games. However I cannot backup any files to my memory sticks because i always get the access is denied message.

The images are attached. It seemed to let me save my images into 'my documents' which is nice of it...
 

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#20 ·
Re: Access denied to C disk and lost admin rights to system admin account

Ok, so when I boot windows from my disc, I select 'repair your computer'. Then it says "This version of system recovery options is not available with the version of windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of windows".

The thing is, the disc is for windows 7 home premium, and that's what I have already installed.

Should I press "install now" instead?
 
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