Windows 10: I have a licensed account my C drive has been locked I do i regain administrator rights to...

Need to reinstall C drive

:)

 

Lost access rights to C drive in Windows 10, even from administrator account!

Thanks for your prompt response and for the clarifications, Frederik.

Regarding your questions:

• Which folders are affected?
  • I cannot access C: drive at all. I can only use other disks. That's the main issue; I'd like to recover access, be able to run those programs that need files in C:, etc.
• The correct command would be takeown /f C:\ /r. You must run it under elevated privileges.
  • Thanks, but I've run the command using both my account (which is an administrator account) and the hidden Administrator account, in Safe Mode, and in all cases I've got an "access denied" message. The /r is just for
    recursivity, but it didn't work either.
• In your case I am happy to report that your files are safe.
  • Thanks. I know they are safe, but my concern is which solution can give me access to C: drive again, without having to format C: and lose my files. That's what I meant.

So, which would be your recommended next step for me try and recover the C: drive access.

Thanks!

 

Lost access rights to C drive in Windows 10, even from administrator account!

Hi everybody,

I'll explain my situation, for if anyone can help me sort it out.

In my Windows 10 I was using a personal account (domain "desktop-[pc-code]\[myuser]) that was labelled as administrator, when I unfortunately removed all access rights to C: drive from Properties -> Security.

Since then, I've tried the following solutions that I've found in other threads:

1. Try to re-establish rights from Properties -> Security
   • I cannot do because my Security tab now doesn't show the same options, and there are a few "change" buttons which don't do anything when clicked
2. Try to enable hidden administrator account with net user administrator /active:yes
   • I couldn't do it from my personal account due to permissions, but I could do it by restarting from "Update & Recovery" and using the console prompt (Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options). Once active, I log in in Safe Mode with this hidden Administrator account
     but I have the same problem. Even if it is an administrator account, it cannot modify C: drive security permissions and it returns access denied when double clicking C: drive in My Computer.
3. From Administrador account, in cmd prompt, try using takeown command over C: drive ( takeown /f C:\ )
   • It returns "access denied"
4. Try restoring the system to an older state from recovery options
   • There are no restoring points in the system to go back to

I'm running out of solutions here. Any other idea before having to reinstall the whole system and losing all files?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards.

 

Lost access rights to C drive in Windows 10, even from administrator account!

Let's get a few things straight.

• In my Windows 10 I was using a personal account (domain "desktop-[pc-code]\[myuser]) that was labelled as administrator.
• Try to enable hidden administrator account with net user administrator /active:yes

-> In Windows, your admin account has exactly the same privileges as the inbuilt Administrator account.

• I unfortunately removed all access rights to C: drive from Properties -> Security.

-> Which folders are affected?

• From Administrador account, in cmd prompt, tried using takeown command over C: drive (takeown /f C:\ )

-> The correct command would be takeown /f C:\ /r. You must run it under
elevated privileges.

• Tried restoring the system to an older state from recovery options

-> System restore will restore system files. It will not modify permisssions.

• Any other idea before having to reinstall the whole system and losing all files?

-> It keeps amazing me how concerned many people are about losing their files, yet they persistently ignore the need for regular (e.g. weekly) backups. In your case I am happy to report that your files are safe.