Win7 cannot access

[BOAC]

This is driving me potty! I have changed my C-Drive from FAT32 to NTFS. Now I wish to add an XP OS to EasyBCD. It will not allow me. 'Access to the path C:\NST\NTLDR is denied'.

I have ownership as administrator, and full control of C and all sub-folders etc and I have taken UAC to minimum. I can open/edit as appropriate all files on C drive. What now?

[green granite]

All I can suggest is you use the recovery console option on the installation disc using something like the fixmbr command, there is a full list of commands here (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/recovery_console_overview.mspx?mfr=true)

You'l need to click into the 'To start the computer and use the Recovery Console' and then on the 'Recovery Console commands' link

[BOAC]

GG - that page is for XP, not W7. I just need to sort this 'path' problem out really.

[green granite]

The recovery console commands are the same in W7 as in XP.

Unless Saab or milo can come with something you're on your own I'm afraid.

[Milo Minderbinder]

nothing really useful from this direction I'm afraid
I've steered well away from third party bootloaders after experimenting back in the Win9x days and discovering that they don't simply work "out of the box"
I much prefer to have a single OS on machine.......however I guess thats easy when you have eight machines to play with

In this case, I'd hazard a guess that the issue is that the bootloader has created a folder which is "superprotected" and cannot be accessed directly. It has to be edited using the supplied tools. I've seen it before on the software I played with years ago. Essentially in that, the various OS bootloaders were locked away into a protected folder and copied to the root of the C: drive as/when an OS was selected. The protection was there to stop root kits - and simple file corruption. In essence on every boot, you were guaranteed a clean bootloader
I suspect - don't know - that you're coming across something similar here. You need to find the correct tools to edit the folder

[Mac the Knife]

Not quite sure what yr problem is here.

Are you running as the REAL Administrator rather than as a User with Administrative rights?

Sounds like a permission problem - check permissions and acls

Or see: Win7/WinXP dual boot issue (http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6766)
and also
WinXP to Win7 lost dual boot (http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5444)
and also
failed to start file: \NST\NTLDR status: 0x000000f - Windows 7 Help Forums (http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/120391-failed-start-file-nst-ntldr-status-0x000000f.html)

Else Run gpedit.msc and goto

Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Options and enable the following keys:

Recovery console: Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and all folders

Enabling this security option makes the Recovery Console SET command available, which allows you to set the following Recovery Console environment variables once you are in the RC.

AllowWildCards: Enable wildcard support for some commands (such as the DEL command).
AllowAllPaths: Allow access to all files and folders on the computer.
AllowRemovableMedia: Allow files to be copied to removable media, such as a floppy disk.
NoCopyPrompt: Do not prompt when overwriting an existing file.

[Set the first three to TRUE, eg. "Set AllowAllPaths=TRUE"]

Default: This policy is not defined and the recover console SET command is not available.

Recovery console: Allow automatic administrative logon

This security setting determines if the password for the Administrator account must be given before access to the system is granted. If this option is enabled, the Recovery Console does not require you to provide a password, and it automatically logs on to the system.

Default: This policy is not defined and automatic administrative logon is not allowed.

Now get into your Recovery console and try again. If this is a permission problem you'll need to fool around with icacls.

And Milo, EasyBCD is not a third party bootloader, it's just a GUI tool that makes it easier to configure and tweak the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) boot database.

Mac

[BOAC]

Quick update: In the process of trying fixboot on the XP system I killed the Win 7 installation but using system image of Win7 and much wrangling with the XP bits after a restore of those files to the XP folder I have it more or less back in one piece!

Lots of fun.:uhoh: Thanks for all the inputs.

[mixture]

BOAC....

File security issues after converting FAT32 partitions to the NTFS file system (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810142)

[BOAC]

Thanks for the link, mixture. I don't think it is relevant however, since:

I didn't use 'convert.exe'
The problem was on the C partition
Neither OS is on that partition

Interesting, though!