windows 8 "Partition is not accessible. Access is denied."

[MightyJordan]

OK, I'll try to be as detailed as I can with this. Originally, I was trying to size down my system partition in order to clone it onto my SSD, by clearing as much space as I could, then creating a second partition and moving non-system files over, resizing when needed (only had to be done three times). The first resize went off without a hitch, but the second one ended up completely botching my Windows installation to the point where it was unusable and unrecoverable, so I had to resort to a fresh install of Windows 8 straight onto the SSD (which I know is the recommended method; I just didn't want to resort to reinstalling every single program of mine again). Now, since then, everything's been fine, except for the former system partition on the HDD. It refuses to let me browse it (as seen in the screenshot above). Weirdly however, I can see the folders if I explore it in EASEUS Partition Master. Now, I have Google searched to try and find a solution; the common one that pops up is to grant all privileges to my account, which has already been done. Another suggestion was to convert it to a dynamic volume, but that hasn't worked either (and annoyingly, I can't convert it back to a basic volume now). I've also done a S.M.A.R.T. check, ran CHKDSK, ran SFC /scannow, all they all come back with no issues.

Does anyone know any other potential solutions for regaining access to the drive, without losing any of the files? A fair bit of my personal stuff is on there (documents, pictures), as well as a lot of Steam game files; I really don't want to have to resort to redownloading several hundred GBs again.

Obviously, I have been an idiot for not having a backup; I'm planning on rectifying that by buying an external HDD soon; preferably a 2TB one, so I can back up both HDDs.

[Jonny Wright]

I have had this in the past and although I can't remember the exact method I used, I do remember what kind of settings I had to change.

Aswell as giving myself the necessary privileges, I needed to take "ownership" of the drive. Right click, Properties, Security, Advanced, Owner then chose my user account. I'm pretty sure this then let me access all the files on the drive after Windows went mental one afternoon and locked me out. Could be worth a try?

[MightyJordan]

I have had this in the past and although I can't remember the exact method I used, I do remember what kind of settings I had to change.

Aswell as giving myself the necessary privileges, I needed to take "ownership" of the drive. Right click, Properties, Security, Advanced, Owner then chose my user account. I'm pretty sure this then let me access all the files on the drive after Windows went mental one afternoon and locked me out. Could be worth a try?

Thanks for the reply. I'll just give that a go now...

...nope, no luck, I'm afraid. According to the window, I have already taken ownership of the drive.

[+BudMan MVC]

You installed a NEW OS?? The SID changed, whatever permissions you set on that drive are no longer valid because you have a new OS. Take ownership and there you go. Access to drive, unless you had used something like EFS and you don't have the keys now that you installed a new os, etc. Then you might be F_cked!

edit: just because you have ownership, does not mean you have access - just give your account the permissions you want, owner can always set permissions.

[MightyJordan]

You installed a NEW OS?? The SID changed, whatever permissions you set on that drive are no longer valid because you have a new OS. Take ownership and there you go. Access to drive, unless you had used something like EFS and you don't have the keys now that you installed a new os, etc. Then you might be F_cked!

edit: just because you have ownership, does not mean you have access - just give your account the permissions you want, owner can always set permissions.

According to this window...

...my account has full control. The special permissions field is blanked out when I try to allow that, however. And when I try to change anything at all there, I'm greeted with this...

Oh, and I did try to retake control. I used this method to take ownership, and I'm still being denied access.

One more screenshot for now, just to show something on my PC can at least access the partition...

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

I got the failed to enumerate the other day while cleaning up the Windows.old on some Server 2012 upgrades. I had to drill down a few folders, take ownership, then delete then go back up a few directories, take ownership then could delete it all - it was like it completely ignored permissions (and even the ones I was trying to assign/take owner of) until the trash was cleaned out.

[+BudMan MVC]

According to that windows the Administrators group has permission, not your account.

Your account may be a member of admins - but until you elevate it would not be running with an admin token.. Give YOUR ACCOUNT permissions, or the users group, or the everyone group.

[MightyJordan]

BudMan, you're a (virtual) lifesaver. :woot: I just just tried to give permissions to "Everyone", and my username, and I get the same "Failed to enumerate..." error as posted above, but the permissions stay in the window, and it's finally accessible again! :) Only thing that came up when I accessed the properties again was a message telling me the Recycle Bin on that drive was corrupted, so I just emptied it (There was obviously nothing of any use in there).

Sorry for misreading your original post. :p

[+BudMan MVC]

"Failed to enumerate..." objects in the container - I would have to assume it has ACLs set to accounts that are not longer available for the reason for those errors somewhere down the line.

You could prob remove the error by completely writing the permissions down the tree with your new accounts,

[Nelson76]

I can fully agree with both Budman and MightyJordan, you need to add YOUR user account to the security settings for that drive. A whole slew of other problems arise if you also have Bitlocker enabled.