Access is denied, Trying to recover files from .wim image

CJSwemmer · 13 Jul 2011

Hi all,

I've been searching for answers the past few days... I have successfully mounted a .wim recovery file, and I can access the folders etc. through Explorer. My problem is: The directories I need to access to recover files (like Users\Default user) gives me a "Access is denied" message. I am Admin on my local machine (and my domain user account also has Domain Admin rights) - I simply cannot access the files or change security permissions, or take ownership.

Any suggestions on how to access the folders where I can recover documents, photos, etc. from?

Thank you,
T

theog · 13 Jul 2011

Take a look here:
Extract Files from Windows 7 Installation DVD

Barman58 · 13 Jul 2011

You are working against two different security features here.

First - the user that "owns" the files on the WIM no longer exists, the name may be the same but the actual UID will be different.

Second - The dual token administration model used in win7.

What you need to do is take ownership of the root users folder and then give your actual user name full access permissions (explorer does not always automatically prompt for elevation as it should).

I have used this method to solve this issue on many old drives but have not tried it within a WIM, you may need to perform the tasks as the Built in (hidden) administrator