Accidentally set "deny" on full control, can't unset

Can someone please help me? I meant to deny only one folder access temporarily to another user I added, but even though I right clicked that folder, it apparently gave me the properties of the entire D:\ drive. On top of that, I ended up denying full control on 'users', which even locked out my Admin!

That said, now in "Computer", that drive does not show how much space it has left. If I right click it, I get NO security tab.

I have also attempted to go into cmd.exe and do cacls D: (anything here results in "Access is Denied" error.

I went into safemode, also got "Access is Denied" error.

Apparently, I made it so not even the admin can change the permissions or even access that drive, period.

Is there ANYTHING that I can do to override this and reset it somehow?

Dunno if it'll work in Win7, but you'll have to run it as an administrator.
Here's 2 links that may help (or at least give you a start):
Reset Registry Permissions (originally posted18Oct08)
Reset Registry Permissions2 (originally posted 16Dec08)

I tried all that, and during the SubInAcl process it became red and started spamming me with Access is Denied errors (in an ADMINISTRATOR command prompt, even)

I'm just shooting in the dark here, but have you tried to copy the registry hives to a FAT32 volume and then copy them back to the NTFS volume?

You'll have to do it from outside of Windows, but this used to be a trick back in the old days to strip file permissions from NTFS data.

Another way is to use another OS and mount the registry hives in that, then change the permissions there. We do this at work, but it's with a proprietary tool, so I'm not familiar with how to do it manually.

I just reinstalled Windows 7. The drive's permissions were STILL fubar'd. This time I was able to take ownership, though, but the drive's really messed up now.

ALL folders have a lock icon, and I can't make them go away.

The security tab used to list 4 things in the Users list.
Authenticated Users
Administrators
Users
SYSTEM

Now they only show ONE.

As well, nothing lists itself as being inherited by the drive, it's non-inherited now. It's so messed up. I even ran the subinacl tool stuff again, no go.

I had to do "lcacls D:\ /Grant Users:F /T" just so windows would stop asking me to give it permission to open files/folders on the drive.

It's a total mess, and it feels like I can't repair it. I want to just reset all the stuff to what they would be if the drive was formatted and new, I want it to have all the proper inheritances and userlists applied like all other drives do... but I don't know how to get it back that way.

have you tried "Take Ownership"

Its a way out...of this lockout situation

paul