After working with -- although not necessarily related to -- Cisco NetMagic (usually flawless) & Norton 2009 (usually a mess) -- my root C drive was closed; no "permission" for access. I am registered as admin. Entire system was scanned by Norton for any virus or other invasions and was cleaned. Used NetMagic several weeks ago to set C: as a shared drive, however now NetMagic sees it as "Offline" (although that may not be its real status). Win 7 boots fine and but only a few programs run, few of the Control Panel programs work, none of the admin features run. I can use the browser, but not Outlook. Can open but not alter any options in the sharing permission sub-window on C disk Properties. Typical Error message: "Your administrator has blocked you from running this program. Access is denied". I can't access restore points nor access a WHS file restore because the local WHS restore program is not accessible, although I can presumably do a total system restore booting with the WHS system restore disk. Due to a 2-day data loss, that is last resort. I was using NetMagic's excellent online instructions on how to undo Norton's "Trust" system, which when installed yesterday, locked up NetMagic's previously established network folder shares. Norton also seemed to be preventing Win 7's "HomeShare" from working. The NetMagic folder sharing problem was solved through obscure settings in Norton, and was tested. The C: drive permission shutdown seemed spontaneous an hour or so after this, with no obvious connection. This NetMagic folder/disk share system, by the way, solves many years of Windows deciding on a weekly basis whether it is going to share folders or not. NetMagic is one of those few totally reliable programs that runs perfectly, bug free; a rare experience. Windows 7, Final Release. Working fine for a week or so. If nothing else is there a way to plug the SATA drive into another computer and access the registry for disk access permission changes? I am not technical, so please give proposals in "layman's" language...thanks. 30 year (CPM) computer novice.

I am absolutely curious about what you were trying to achieve using NetMagic and Norton 2009.You can try to restore your system using the repair option in the Windows 7 setup DVD.1. Boot the Windows 7 setup DVD. 2.Click Next in the first screen 3. Choose "Repair your computer"4. Select "Use recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows." and click Next5. Choose System RestoreNow select a restore point at time when your system was still working properly.I hope this gets your system up and running again.Ray

Missed your other question. Repair was a good suggestion; it took me half a day to discover it. I have been using NetMagic for years. Once a shared folder or drive is opened with MetMagic, it stays open, unlike Windows, where the folders constantly change their accessibility by the weather or whatever! Even "Windows Home Server" cannot offer a server-based permanently opened share folder, despite what is advertised. I was quite surprised to find that Win7 could not open sharing files or the "HomeShare" with another networked computer also running HomeShare. By now -- 15 years -- I would have thought MS had figured this out. I added Norton suspecting a virus, despite the Windows Firewall. It did find one, very rare for me. Only had one major virus attack in 25 years. Thank you for asking. I ended up restoring the entire disk & system last night with WHS, then a few hours later the same close down of C Drive occurred. I had Norton running and it seems to have recorded it in the log as "No user logged in."30 year (CPM) computer novice.

The fact that you found a virus sounds suspicious. I don't want to offend, but did you get Windows 7 RC from a trusted source? There has a been a malware infected version of the media available in the wild. See http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2009/05/01/windows-7-rc-torrent-files-infected-with-trojan.aspxI suspect a 3rd party component on your system of messing up the ACLs on your C-drive. Did you install the latest Windows 7 compatible version of Norton on your system or just Norton 2009? Norton 2009 is reported to be incompatible with Windows 7. Check out the beta build for Windows 7 at http://www.norton.com/win7.Ray

Douglas,If you were playing with the Homegroup settings, this might help you.