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I have a problem with copying from a network drive to the root of the C drive or to "program files(x64)" or to directly under "\Users" directly from the network. Here's the error I'm getting:

"X:\ is unavailable. If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected or the disc is inserted, and then try again. If the location is on a network, make sure you're connected to the network or Internet, and then try again. If the location still can't be found, it might have been moved or deleted."

I can however copy the network file to a temporary location (such as desktop), another folder I created directly under C drive etc. It is also not a network connectivity issue.

This happens on fully patched Win 8.1 machines on a windows domain network with a domain admin account (and also with a local admin account). Shares are also Windows 2012 Servers, not a third party NAS etc.

Another important thing is, it's fine if you are copying from any local resource to the root of C or to other problematic locations. So this is not a basic permission issue I assume.

Looking to see what is causing this and whether I can change this behavior. You can see the effective permissions on one of the problematic folders below. As you can see I should have full access to this folder.

enter image description here

Community
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user2629636
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  • Is it a UAC issue? – HopelessN00b Aug 06 '14 at 13:33
  • No, UAC is disabled. (set to never modify) – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 13:48
  • How did you disable UAC? There's about 10 registry keys that control UAC; only one ties to the slider in the Users control panel. For a quick test, use "Run as Administrator" on Windows Explorer from the source PC and try the copy again. I doubt this, though, as I copy from Win8 to Win2012R2 all the time without trouble (and our GPOs force UAC on, so Win8 tiles don't break). Are you accessing the same share for each copy? Any chance you have one share set to "Full Control" and another to "Read"? – DarkMoon Aug 06 '14 at 20:47
  • I told you that I set it to "never modify" specifically. I'm not going to change the registry settings. – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 21:05
  • I tried "run as admin" running explorer.exe from CMD. Did not help. I can copy from Win 8 to Win 2012 (into C drive just fine), have you tried the opposite? I have tried with several different shares, even on several different servers, all has the same behavior. I do have full control over the shares I'm copying from, but even a read permission is enough to copy FROM a share. The important part is the destination (C:). But as you can see on the screenshot, I have all the permissions. – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 21:13
  • Better question is, "Why did you disable UAC?" It's almost always a really bad idea, and there's generally a better way to get the permissions you need. – Joel Coel Jul 21 '15 at 17:52
  • Also: you do know that standard users have not had write access to the root of the C: drive or to the program files folders since Windows 2000, right? It's poor practice to write to those locations yourself. The restriction includes the program files folder for your own program, and it also applies to administrator accounts in Vista and later that are not specifically elevated (perhaps causing you to disabled UAC), but you can get around this by setting permissions on _just the specific folders_ that you need to allow standard users to have write access. – Joel Coel Jul 21 '15 at 17:54
  • Short version: don't write things to the C:\ drive. **Just don't do it.** – Joel Coel Jul 21 '15 at 17:56

2 Answers2

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The error message is pretty clear:

X:\ is unavailable.

Whatever user is running this process is not able to connect to the network drive. It hasn't even started to look at C:\ drive yet (and BTW, writing to the root of the C:\ drive is a really bad idea.)

If this is a drive mapped for your user account, and you elevate to run as administrator, mapped drives won't work. You'll need to access the share via it's UNC (\\server\share) path.

Joel Coel
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It sounds like it is a permissions issue. Windows 8.1 protected the root of the C drive pretty heavily.

You should be able to get around the protection by setting Everyone to have full control of the C drive and making sure the C drive is shared. When you share the C drive, make sure that under the Share Permissions; Everyone has full control.

That should bypass the built in security for the C drive.

Have you tried doing a Google search on the error message?

Luke Loescher
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  • I don't see why this should be a permission issue as that user has full control and still cant write to it. Also, sharing C: and giving everyone permissions is not an option for security reasons. And I don't think it will solve it, as that permission is share level but I'm still locked by file system level issues. – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 15:00
  • Is the network user also a user account on the machine? If not, then maybe you can try adding them to the local users. – Luke Loescher Aug 06 '14 at 15:08
  • Is there any particular reason that you need to copy directly to the root of the C drive from the network? – Luke Loescher Aug 06 '14 at 15:09
  • Yes, network user is also on local admin accounts. There is no specific reason to write directly to C but some users need to do direct changes to folders under Program Files ie. – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 15:27
  • For a quick test, you can try making a particular folder under the Program Files directory shared with Everyone set to Full Control. Then see if you can copy files from the network to that directory? – Luke Loescher Aug 06 '14 at 17:47
  • I forgot to mention. If you create any folder under C:, you can copy directly to that folder. So creating a folder even without sharing works fine. But again, people want to copy directly into Program Files, which does not work. – user2629636 Aug 06 '14 at 18:50