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.