Hyper-V virtual machine not starting, “General access denied error” (0x80070005)

Last night I got a strange error after restoring a vhd from our Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 server. The virtual machine didn’t start and all the error was a General access denied error, like the system cannot read the vhd file.

I started digging and found a KB article from Microsoft with the same description: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2249906

The actual error you get if you click the job is something like this:

‘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 you will see some additional information:

‘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)

To fix the error follow this steps:

  1. 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.

  2. Open an elevated command prompt.
  3. 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 you 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)
  4. Start the virtual machine.

After this the Virtual Machine starts normally.

This entry was posted in Hyper-V, SC DPM, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Hyper-V virtual machine not starting, “General access denied error” (0x80070005)

  1. Rene Lopez says:

    I get Invalid parameter “NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\B01577EE-3987-4499-8772-DBAF5C27AEBC”

    Please Help!

  2. Nelson Chamba says:

    Dear ,

    Just created a new VM give a diferent name and same .vhda and boot it. After it starts you can stop it and go back and boot the original on.

    hope this works for you, for me was a solution 🙂

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