Access is Denied Error Message in Windows Vista

A junction point in Windows Vista operating system is a protected operating system folder that points to another folder such as My Pictures, My Documents etc. The junction point does not contain any file or data and is considered to be the most critical element for application compatibility.

Data saved in the folders (My Pictures, My Documents, My Music and My Videos) can be lost due to operating system failure, file system damage, metadata structure damage, virus infection and more. In such situations, if the user has not maintained any back up of the lost data, then he needs to perform Data Recovery. To do so, the user needs to use advanced Data Recovery Software.

As a practical scenario, a user upgrades the computer system from Windows XP to Windows Vista. However, when the user attempts to access My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos folders in Windows Vista, he is unable to do so. Furthermore, the user encounters the below error message when he tries to access those folders:

“Access is denied”

Cause:

The main cause of the inaccessibility of these folders is that the files stored in these folders in Windows XP are transferred to the below folders in Windows Vista:

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Documents

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Music

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Pictures

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Videos

When a user upgrades to Windows Vista, it sets the read permissions of these folders to Deny. As a result, the user is unable to access these junction points. However, when the user attempts to access these junction points, he is redirected to the below folders:

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Documents

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Music

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Pictures

· %systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Videos

If the user attempts to change the default settings of the junction points, then the system becomes unstable.

Resolution:

To resolve the above issue and to access the files stored in these folders, the user needs to redirect these links to the correct folders. To do so, he needs to follow these steps:

• The user needs to click Start, right-click the appropriate item and click Properties.
• On the Location tab, the user needs to replace the invalid target location with the valid one. For instance, to redirect the My Documents folder to the Documents folder in Windows Vista, enter systemdrive%\Users\user_name\Documents
• Finally, the user needs to click Apply and OK.

But if the problem persists even after redirecting the folders, then the user needs to recover the inaccessible data by using effective Data Recovery application.

But if the problem persists even after redirecting the folders, then the user needs to recover the inaccessible data by using effective Data Recovery application.