On a Windows guest operating system, attempting to access the any partition through Windows Explorer results in an "Access Denied" error message.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

On a guest virtual machine hosted on VMware vSphere, attempting to access a partition via Windows Explorer or Disk Management results in an "Access Denied" error message.

Environment

Guest VM hosted on VMware vSphere with Windows OS installed. 

Cause

At the operating system level there may be an open handle (e.g. Backup, Antivirus, etc.), NTFS file system corruption, registry corruption or group policy affecting disk access.

Resolution

Request customer to engage their Windows OS Team to validate the below options. 

• Ensure you are logged in with an Administrator account.
• Check the partition from Windows explorer, Diskpart & Diskmanagement and ensure the required file system is showing.  
• Perform clean boot using MSconfig and disable 3rd party application and software.
• Try to assign different Drive letter to the partition. 
• If your computer part of a domain group. Check the group policy settings if there is one set that is blocking this. 

If issue persist request customer to reach out to OS Vendor (Microsoft) for further investigation. 

Additional Information

Perform clean boot using MSconfig