Solved 8.1 won't allow me into a drive on my computer.

Aksarben

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Location
Fennville, MI
Dual boot. XP Pro (SP3) on Drive 0 as primary, extended D: both of which are FAT32. Then I made a partition on the drive 0 and assigned it drive letter F: and named it Windows 8.1PRO. Bought a DVD of Windows 8.1 pro and installed it in that partition. It created a new folder in my C: drive (XP_C) called BOOT. In it resides the BCD and other necessary files. Dual boots into either XP or Windows 8.1 I also have 2 other physical had drives, both 1Tb like the drive 0 and drive 1 is E: and drive 2 is G:

Wife has identical desktop I built and is configured same way.

Recently I tried to edit the BCD file with a program called BCD Edit. I created a restore point and when in the program I backed up the BCD file before proceeding. After I edited the BCD from Earlier Windows operating system, to just "Windows XP" I tried it out and the menu is as I edited, but not in the 8.1 blue graphical style I thought would happen, but more the command prompt, black screen with white lettering. I booted back into 8.1 pro and all was well. I went back into the program and restored the original BCD file then uninstalled BCD Edit program. I found out around this time that even though I can access drives G: E: and even drive D: which is the extended logical of drive 0, I could not look at drive F:, which I had previous changed the lettering to some time back that held the XP partition.

I now get an error when I try to access it that say "Access Denied" and if i click "continue". There is a continue button, which I pressed, but that next screen tells me I have to configure security settings. Right click on that partition (F:) and there is no security, even in the advanced tab.

I go to my wife's computer, pull up 'My Computer' (renamed from This PC ) and get a list of her drives and partitions. I can go to her partition that has Windows XP on it, but not on mine now. Any ideas to try?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP and 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus MB home built
    CPU
    AMD AM3+
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    12GB
    Hard Drives
    3 ea Western Digital 1 Tb hard drives.
    Drive 0 = 3 partitions C: D: F:
    Drive 1 = 1 partition
    Drive 2 = 1 partition
    Internet Speed
    DSL sometimes slow as mollasses in Jan.
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    ESET
If I run regedit and change the following: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\EnableLUA and give it a value (modify) of 0 instead of 1. I have to reboot, but then I can access my XP drive letter F: using explorer. It seems that Explorer only runs as standard user and not elevated to Administrative Rights. Hence, I could find my F: drive (XP_C ) when I opened window key =X and choose A. That gave me a cmd prompt in Administrative use, not standard. Just opening cmd from "run" will get me into the standard command prompt, not elevated, and I could not change drive to F: as I would get a message "access denied". Only as Admin can I access the drive F: either in explorer or cmd prompt.

Catch 22. None of the apps of Windows 8.1 will work with the UAC (User Account Control) disabled. I don't use them anyway, and haven't used one to date.

For those interested, I found some information here: https://social.technet.microsoft.co...-2012-uac-folder-problem?forum=winserverfiles
and initially, here: https://social.technet.microsoft.co...rator-with-file-explorer?forum=w8itprogeneral

Now, after reboot I CAN access the XP_C partition drive F: in the "My Computer" / explorer window. Anyone might know a way to work around this so one can keep the UAC working, by all means pitch in.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP and 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus MB home built
    CPU
    AMD AM3+
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    12GB
    Hard Drives
    3 ea Western Digital 1 Tb hard drives.
    Drive 0 = 3 partitions C: D: F:
    Drive 1 = 1 partition
    Drive 2 = 1 partition
    Internet Speed
    DSL sometimes slow as mollasses in Jan.
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    ESET
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