Article ID: 2249906 - Last Review: August 5, 2011 - Revision: 3.0

Hyper-V virtual machines may not start, and you receive an error: “‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)”

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SYMPTOMS

A Hyper-V virtual machine may fail to start and you receive an error that resembles the following:

An error occurred while attempting to start the selected virtual machine(s).

‘VMName’ failed to start.

Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID
{83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to Power on with Error ‘General
access denied error’

IDE/ATAPI Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’

Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’

If you click See details, the following error is listed:

‘VMName’ failed to start. (Virtual machine ID
5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

‘VMName’ Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID
{83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to Power on with Error ‘General
access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual machine ID
5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

‘VMName’: IDE/ATAPI Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual
Machine ID 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

‘VMName’: Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual
Machine ID 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

Notes

This error message references either the Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller or the Microsoft Synthetic SCSI Controller.
This error message references either a virtual hard disk (.vhd) file or a snapshot file (.avhd).
The Virtual Machine ID is unique to each virtual machine.

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CAUSE

This issue occurs if the permissions on the virtual hard disk (.vhd) file or the snapshot file (.avhd) are incorrect.

Hyper-V virtual machines have a unique Virtual Machine ID (SID). If the Virtual Machine SID is missing from the security permissions on the .vhd or .avhd file, the virtual machine does not start, and you receive the following error:

‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, add the Virtual Machine SID to the virtual hard disk (.vhd) file or to the snapshot file (.avhd).

To add the Virtual Machine SID to a .vhd or .avhd file, follow these steps:

Note the Virtual Machine ID that is listed in the "‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)" error message.

For example, consider the following error message:

‘VMName’: IDE/ATAPI Account does not have sufficient privilege to open attachment
‘E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd. Error: ‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005). (Virtual
Machine ID 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663)

In this example, the Virtual Machine ID is 5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663.
Open an elevated command prompt.
To give the Virtual Machine ID (SID) access to the .vhd or .avhd file, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
icacls <Path of .vhd or .avhd file> /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\<Virtual Machine ID from step 1>":F

For example, to use the Virtual Machine ID that was noted in step 1, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
icacls "E:\VMs\VMName\Disk0.vhd" /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\5FC5C385-BD98-451F-B3F3-1E50E06EE663":F
Start the virtual machine.

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MORE INFORMATION

If permissions are incorrect on the Hyper-V virtual machine configuration file (.xml file), the virtual machine will fail to start with the following error:

‘Unnamed VM’ failed to initialize.

An attempt to read or update the virtual machine configuration failed because access was denied.

If you click See details, the following error is listed:

‘Unnamed VM’ failed to initialize. (Virtual machine 7E77503A-A26B-4BB5-9846-396F49A30141)

‘Unnamed VM’ failed to read or update the virtual machine configuration because access was denied: General access denied error (0×80070005). Check the security settings on the folder in which the virtual machine is stored. (Virtual machine 7E77503A-A26B-4BB5-9846-396F49A30141)

To resolve this issue, perform the steps in the Resolution section to add the Virtual Machine SID to the .xml file.

Example command to add the Virtual Machine SID to the .xml file:

icacls "E:\VMs\VMName\7E77503A-A26B-4BB5-9846-396F49A30141.xml" /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\7E77503A-A26B-4BB5-9846-396F49A30141":F

For more information about Hyper-V, visit the following Microsoft website:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753637(WS.10).aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753637(WS.10).aspx)

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Note This is a "FAST PUBLISH" article created directly from within the Microsoft support organization. The information contained herein is provided as-is in response to emerging issues. As a result of the speed in making it available, the materials may include typographical errors and may be revised at any time without notice. See Terms of Use (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=151500) for other considerations.

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