# Solved: Sony Windows 8 Refresh Caused Access Denied Error on C:\



## dollarbillme (Oct 29, 2007)

Sony Windows 8 Refresh Caused Access Denied Error on C:\ 

I am creating this post as I found no working solution using Google. 

First some background:

I was working with a customer machine infected with the FBI (Money Pack) virus. The computer was a Sony AIO with Windows 8, UEFI, and GPT. I was unable to run any programs in normal mode. I was also unable to open safe mode. In addition, due to the GPT file system, I was unable to pull the hard drive and scan it in another system. Furthermore, the computer would not boot from Hirens and a Windows install disk caused it to lockup. I was able to run System Restore, but it failed before completing.

Thus I tried the option labeled &#8220;System Refresh&#8221;. 

System Refresh completed fairly quickly without error, and upon competition the virus pop-up was gone. Also the user&#8217;s desktop icons were intact. I found however that I could not access their personal folders. When I clicked on C:\ I was given a simple &#8220;Access Denied&#8221; message. To make matters worse, I could run a cmd prompt, but not an administrator cmd prompt. Task Manager would not load as well. 

I did first try taking ownership of C:\ and resetting permissions but this made matters worse and I had to perform a second Refresh to undo that mess. The computer had only 1 user account and I could not verify the issue was related to the profile or not. Also, I could not create a new account as the Metro PC Settings menu was blocked as well.

I found the solution in booting to Safe Mode (shift + restart) and first activating the hidden administrator account.

Using the user account in Safe Mode, I could open an administrator cmd prompt.

I then used &#8220;net user administrator /active:yes&#8221; to enable the hidden admin account.

Next, logged out of the user account and logged in as admin while still in safe mode. Using the admin account I was then able to access Metro&#8217;s PC Settings and create a new user account.

I then rebooted the computer and logged in as the new user. The new user account worked properly and did not suffer from the &#8220;access denied&#8221; errors. 

I then copied the user&#8217;s files from the profile on the C:\ drive to new account and deleted the broken account.

In my experience the issue was simply a &#8220;corrupted profile&#8221; but due to Windows 8 the fix was much more difficult to perform.

To recap

1. Boot to Safe Mode using Shift + Restart
2.	Enable hidden Admin account using &#8220;net user administrator /active:yes&#8221; 
3.	Create new user
4.	Copy files from broken account to new

I hope this helps others, and is yet another proven reason why I hate Windows 8.


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## gurutech (Apr 23, 2004)

The Access Denied may have just been a fluke in the initial installation. I just cleaned up one of these FBI viruses the other day, and was able to do a system restore with no problems.


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