Hi there. I upgraded from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 about a month ago. Been running without issues until 2 days ago. Win 10 welcomed me with a bluescreen, now the Startmenu and Taskbar is gone, also my Keyboard - the virtual Keyboard isnt working either, same goes for most services. Windows 10 recovery not working, System restore point not working either. A lot of issues. So I tried to backup my files from Desktop but they are all locked and I am not able to do anything due to permission issues. I am the admin but not able to change those permissions. I lost admin access even though I am the admin and settings should be set right. There is no way but to format that Harddrive, but I cant before I am not able to backup my files. How can I safe my files. How can I regain my permissions even tough Windows tells me I am the owner? Before that bluescreen I was able to move and copy those files. Out of nowhere I cant. Worst Windows experience ever as there is not a single proper fix or solution to this pretty common issue. Hope somebody knows how to fix this. No more hope on Windows 10, just want to get my files back! Any help very very much appreciated.
Make a bootable USB flash drive, CD or DVD of Kyhi's recovery drive:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 blog
Boot the computer from it. You will also need an external storage device such as a USB hard drive with enough free space to store an image. Use Macrium Reflect Free to make an image of at least the Windows partition of the hard drive. After the image is created you should be able to explore it from Macrium Reflect Free, and click the box for allowing access to restricted files/folders. Once you verify you can do that, then you can clean install Windows 10, install Macrium Reflect Free on the newly installed Windows 10, and explore the image to copy your data files back.
Here's a little hint as well. If you have the USB hard drive to store the image on, you can also save a Windows 10 ISO file to it obtained from either Microsoft Tech Bench or Media Creation Tool. You can initiate the Windows 10 clean install from within Kyhi's recovery drive by mounting the ISO file, then running setup.exe from the virtual drive created.
Hi there thank you for that quick answer. I am not able to create an image via Macrium Reflect. It "Failed to create Volume Snapshot". I did a bunch of troubleshooting on it and I tried a couple of other programs in order to create an image. All of them have trouble - none working and just getting stuck. Seems like too many Windows Services are down (such as VSS). I dont care about fixing Windows, just need to regain access to my files. Any other tips or hacks?
From Kyhi's recovery drive, use File Explorer to copy off everything you can? Then do a clean install.
From Kyhi's recovery drive, use File Explorer to copy off everything you can? Then do a clean install.
Link to Kyhi's recovery drive -
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 blog
First of all many thanks to you for providing so much help. I have booted on Khyi's recovery drive, but the File Explorer doesn't allow me to copy those files over. I still can't move / copy the files anywhere.
Make a bootable USB for pretty much any version of Linux. That should allow you to copy your stuff regardless of Windows permissions. Linux Mint is probably the most "Windows" like if you are not familiar with Linux.
Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" - Cinnamon (64-bit) - Linux Mint
Use something like Win32DiskImager or UnetBootin to convert the ISO to a bootable USB, then boot into a live session. From there you should be able to mount and open your Windows drive by just selecting it in the file manager.
From your description of the problem it sounds like you picked up some nasty malware somewhere. Hopefully your files are okay.
I had already tried to solve these issues via Knoppix and Tails. I am not able to mount the drive in Linux as its asking for Authentication.Make a bootable USB for pretty much any version of Linux. That should allow you to copy your stuff regardless of Windows permissions. Linux Mint is probably the most "Windows" like if you are not familiar with Linux.
Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" - Cinnamon (64-bit) - Linux Mint
Use something like Win32DiskImager or UnetBootin to convert the ISO to a bootable USB, then boot into a live session. From there you should be able to mount and open your Windows drive by just selecting it in the file manager.
From your description of the problem it sounds like you picked up some nasty malware somewhere. Hopefully your files are okay.
I ll give the ISO boot into Live Session another try now. I am pretty sure that this problem is not caused by malware. thx
Sounds like if the data is really important it's time to take the drive to a data restoration professional.
I just saw this:
MiniTool Power Data Recovery 7 (100% Discount)
Maybe that would help.
