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Konstantinos Tsoukalas

Konstantinos is the founder and administrator of Wintips.org. Since 1995 he works and provides IT support as a computer and network expert to individuals and large companies. He is specialized in solving problems related to Windows or other Microsoft products (Windows Server, Office, Microsoft 365, etc.).

4 Comments

  1. J Z
    December 13, 2023 @ 5:36 pm

    Needed all steps up to step 3. Best guide I found thank you.

    Reply

  2. Pierre2Grenoble
    September 6, 2023 @ 8:35 pm

    Hello all, thank you for this obvious but very helpful tip to retrieve access to an "inaccessible" drive with access denied. Here below is my personal use case:

    – Windows boot drive corrupted after a BSOD crash

    – drive copy and setup with diskpart and bceditedit in order to get it bootable on the new drive

    /!\ booting issue with a black screen ignoring if Windows was running underground

    – default boot drive permissions were broken with access denied under Explorer and access OK in Windows Console

    – missing standard permissions for groups Users and Authenticated users restored with icacls but access still denied under Explorer and boot still with a black screen

    – default ownership was restored from System to TrustedInstaller RATHER THAN GRANTED to Administrators as advised in first step here

    => access granted to Everyone on C:\root WITH object (OI) and container (CI) inhéritance BUT WITHOUT explicit propagation to child items as subfolders and files

    /!\ BINGO! THAT SOLE STEP 2 DID THE TRICK! THE DRIVE BECAME IMMEDIATELY ACCESSIBLE AND READABLE UNDER WINDOWS EXPLORER

    – then i booted from it, the screen remained black but I observed a huge disk and network activity and keyboard was active: I blindly managed to shutdown it properly

    – this time I booted it in safe mode and the screen became active and I was able to open a user session and continue to troubleshoot: Metro apps and GUI to be repaired in order to get access back to the Start menu, the Action Center, the Windows Search and so on. I do know I will be successful :-) crossed fingers!

    – at the end, I WILL REMOVE THE ACCESS GRANTED TO EVERYONE FOR SECURITY PURPOSE

    THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS!

    Reply

  3. Cenema
    August 19, 2023 @ 9:58 am

    That actually worked for me, my files are saved! thank you sooooo much for the amazing guide.
    I had a laptop that went crazy with permissions, and completely locked me out of my drive and files after an automatic chkdsk operation.

    went through the guide and my drive only showed after completing all the steps in the guide. not only that i can see my files in other computers, it also fixed very old permissions problem in the laptop itself.

    Reply

  4. Ma Nu
    February 27, 2023 @ 1:23 am

    I tried to fix this problem with the instructions on probably 10 other websites and none of those worked. Method 2 through step 1.A. "Change the drive owner" on your site was the one that worked. I highly recommend your site, admire the detailed and accurate advice, clean ad-free instructions, and am overall very satisfied with your assistance. I will be donating after submitting this comment. Kudos and 5 out of 5 stars!

    Reply

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