Fix denied access to drive C in Windows 10

The reason that access to drive C is denied in Windows 10

When trying to access C drive in Windows, you may receive an "Access Denied" error message or similar message. When denied access to drive C, you cannot access, change, save or delete files and folders. So why is access to drive C denied in Windows 10?

Generally speaking, there are mainly two reasons why you cannot access drive C. The first is that you do not have access to this partition and the second is that there may be bad sectors on drive C.

How to resolve denied access to drive C in Windows 10?

If drive C is inaccessible (access is denied), you can follow the methods below to fix it.

Method 1: Get partition ownership

The absence of partition ownership is the main reason why access is denied in Windows 10/7. To gain partition ownership, follow these steps:

Step 1 : Right-click the partition you want to own, then click Properties.

Step 2 : Click the Security tab , then select Advanced. The Advanced Security Settings window will appear.

Step 3 : Click the Change link next to the Owner label . After that, the Select User or Group window will appear.

Step 4 : Enter your user account in the field that says 'Enter the object name to select' and click OK.

Step 5 : Once you have the ownership, you now need to provide full access to the partition for the account. Right-click on the partition again, click Properties and select the Security tab .

Step 6 : Click the Add button , then click Select a principle and select your account. Set permissions to Full control. Then click OK.

Method 2: Convert the current user profile to the admin user profile

You can also try converting the current user profile to the user admin profile, by following the steps below and checking if the problem is resolved.

Step 1 : Press the Windows logo key on the keyboard, enter Control Panel and click Control Panel from the search results.

Step 2 : Select Change account type from the window and click on your user account name.

Step 3 : Select Administrator and click Change account type.

Step 4 . Close the window and check if the problem is resolved.

Method 3: Repair bad sectors

If there are bad sectors, they can cause drive C access to be denied in Windows 10. You can use the System File Checker to scan and repair bad sectors.

To use this tool, open Command Prompt. Type the following commands in the Command Prompt and press Enter after each command.

1. sfc / scannow
2. chkdsk c: / f / r
3. bootrec / fixmbr
4. bootrec / fixboot
5. bootrec / scanos
6. bootrec / rebuildbcd

Method 4: Copy the old drive to the new drive

If you've tried all the methods mentioned above, but still can't solve the problem, you may need to consider replacing your old drive with a new one. To clone the drive, you can consider AOMEI Partition Assistant. It is a professional drive cloning tool designed for Windows 10/8/7 / XP / Vista.

Because drive C is inaccessible (access is denied) in Windows 10, you cannot copy the drive from normal booting. You can create bootable USB through AOMEI Partition Assistant and go to WinPE to clone the drive.

To clone the drive, follow the steps below.

Step 1 : Download AOMEI Partition Assistant and open the software. Then create a bootable USB and boot from this device, then go to WinPE. This step will take you to the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 2 : Right-click the drive you want to copy and select Disk Clone.

Step 3 : On the next page, select Clone Disk Quickly and click Next.

Step 4 : Select a destination drive to copy the source drive into and click Next.

Step 5 : Click Apply to apply the changes.

After copying the drive successfully, you can boot from the new drive and the data on the new drive is exactly the same as the old drive. This method can also be used to resolve denied access rights in Windows 7.

If this still does not solve your problem, there is no other option than reinstalling Windows. To reinstall Windows 10, you must download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and use it to create Windows 10 installer on a USB drive. Then change the boot order to boot from USB and follow the instructions to reinstall Windows 10.

Hope you are succesful.