Member Avatar for gauravrudra

All of my drives do not open when i double click them This msg appears on opening it

"This operation has been cancelled due to restictions in effect on this computer .Please contact your system administrator"

I cant access the registry editor also and there is no file named "autorun.inf" in any of the files.

COULD SOMEONE HELP ME OUT .

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by dyamond

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This error almost always comes from an OS policy or a protection layer, not a hardware fault. and were on the right track — treat this as a policy/permission problem first and as malware/third‑party software second. The quickest diagnostic is to confirm whether the restriction is user‑level or machine‑level and then remove the policy that enforces it.

If Group Policy is available, open gpedit.msc and check the user policies that restrict drives. The setting to look for is under:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> File Explorer (or Windows Explorer)
  -> "Prevent access to drives from My Computer"
  -> "Hide these specified drives in My Computer"

If the machine lacks gpedit (Home editions) or you need to edit the policy directly, inspect these registry keys (export the key first):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Look for values such as NoDrives, NoViewOnDrive or similar entries. Back up any key you change (Export), delete the offending value or set it to 0, then sign out and back in (or reboot).

If regedit is blocked or changes revert, check for:

  • Domain/group policy (if the PC is on a corporate domain).
  • Third‑party security/parental‑control software enforcing the block.
  • Persistent malware that re-applies restrictions (use an offline rescue scan).

For malware checks, run an up‑to‑date on‑demand scanner and a bootable rescue disk scan; if the problem is user‑specific, create a new local administrator account to test whether drives open there. Always create a system restore point or export registry hives before making edits. If the PC is domain‑managed, contact the system administrator.

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Member Avatar for balajianand

check for autorun.inf file and delete it....it will work


Regards
BalajiAnand.S

Member Avatar for sittas87

Hi
You should try a registry Repair tool.

Member Avatar for ViennaPro

Are you on a network or local machine. This is a policy you can inforce to keep people from accessing it. If you didn't put it on there yourself then it was put on there by an administrator OR it's very possible a type of virus/malware did this. You will have to edit a registry key to fix the issue. I'm not sure registry repair tools will fix this problem though, they might. poledit.exe on older machines worked wonders for this but i'm not sure there's a similar tool on newer os's. You also should be able to access the registry just fine in Safe Mode (f8 on startup/safe mode). There's also the possibility that your permissions have been removed from the drive. Try this (assuming vista):

Right click on "My Computer"
Select "Manage"
Open "Removable Storage"
Expand "Libraries"
Select your external drive
Right click and choose "Properties"
Open "Security" tab
Click "Add" to add yourself to have control over the drive.

Member Avatar for ViennaPro

If you can't access the registry, it's probably something that's been put on your machine that you need to clean off before this will even get fixed. Run some good cleaners, honestly I'm not sure of the good free ones out right now but i'm sure there's 100's of posts you can search through for cleaning spyware/malware/virus's free.

Member Avatar for dyamond

You dont say but is this a personal computer?

Well if it is and you cant access the registry nor any drives.. it sound like you may have picked up a nasty somewhere.. download a reputable AV or there are a few good online ones like kaspersky and bit defender, give your pc a good scan to see if you picked up anything.

If its a work pc, you might have to contact a admin to see why you dont have privileges.

P.S. Its not really wise to mess around with the registry unless you REALLY know what your doing. I use Ccleaner to fix mine but I always back it up first, that way if something gets screwy I have the back-up.

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