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Is there a way to access the c$ share of a server from another computer and gain complete access regardless of the file system privileges? Perhaps the 'system' account can do this, can I access this account? Also, for my purposes, I need to keep this system live, so I can't just mount the file system on Linux or anything like that (other than mounting the c$ share)

The why:

Right now, My tape backup drive is not working. Until this is fixed, there is a windows file sharing server that I want to manually backup to an array. This server can't have the array directly attached to it. I can either access the computer with the array shared from the file server, or the other way around.

However, when I try to just copy the files from the file sharing host I get a can't copy file error that causes the copy to abort. The reason, I think, is that administrator does not have privileges to access the shares right now. Even though the administrator account can grant this access, I would rather not mess with the privileges.

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  • Neither adding admin to the backup group or robocopy has worked. Right now I am trying to use the windows backup utility, and will see how it goes.
    – Kyle Brandt
    Jun 11, 2009 at 17:50

5 Answers 5

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You can grant a user account Backup Privileges, which allows it access to all files regardless of other permissions on those files.

Typically you add the user to the Backup Operators group on the server.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc740217.aspx

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  • Going to try this one first because it seems like the most simple for something I only plan on doing once or twice, will keep Robocopy in mind though.
    – Kyle Brandt
    Jun 11, 2009 at 12:20
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The RoboCopy utility has a /B option that will allow access from an account with administrative privileges that would otherwise fail. It also allows the copy to continue if only a single file fails or is locked.

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The Administrator account should be able to access the hidden station shares (like c$). Do you have authentication/active directory problems?

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  • I can access that share, just not all of the folders under that share, because some of those folders are set not to inherit permissions.
    – Kyle Brandt
    Jun 11, 2009 at 11:46
  • Aaah you wanna access the users folders. Sorry, I under stand. User Moo above me have the correct answer.
    – pauska
    Jun 12, 2009 at 11:19
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If you are an administrator, once you have accessed the c$ share you can take ownership of those folders and then change the permissions to allow yourself access.

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  • Rather not change the permissions of possible, see the last line of 'The Why'
    – Kyle Brandt
    Jun 11, 2009 at 11:56
  • But you HAVE to change permissions to correct the misconfiguration, to gain access for file backups. Otherwise, the backup software is locked out of those files.
    – spoulson
    Jun 11, 2009 at 11:59
  • I don't think that is true, the netbackup client is able to do it so there must be some sort of low level way to achieve this? Although, maybe there is no practical way. I certainly do appreciate the help though, and am not trying to be difficult :-)
    – Kyle Brandt
    Jun 11, 2009 at 12:07
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It is possible that permissions can be changed so remove Administrator read/write access to files/folders, also preventing changing the permissions by the admin. However, the Administrator can still take ownership of the files, which enables access to change permissions. Then, add access to Administrators.

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