Are you looking for why Hyper-V just showed general access denied error vhd? We can help you fix it.

This error shows up when users try to start a Hyper-V VM and it fails.

And the reason for this error is incorrect permissions of virtual hard disk file or snapshot file.

At Bobcares, we often fix errors occurring in Hyper-V, as a part of our Infrastructure Management Services.

Today, we will have a deeper look into this error and we will see how our Support Engineers fix this error.

Why Hyper-V show the general access denied error?

Hyper-V is a hypervisor hosted on Windows. It can create virtual machines with a unique Virtual Machine ID better known as Virtual Machine Security Identifier, SID.

VHD aka Virtual hard disk is a disk image file format. It stores the complete contents of a hard drive.

If a Virtual Machine does not have enough permission over a .vhd or .avhd file, we cannot start a Virtual Machine. And it shows up the general access denied error. The error appears as,

Let us discuss how our Support Engineers resolve the error for our Suppooer

How we fix the general access denied error?

Usually, this error shows up due to incorrect permission. So, our Support Engineers correct it.

Let’s see how we add the Virtual Machine SID to the .vhd or .avhd file.

Firstly, we note the Virtual Machine ID. This is available in the error message.

Next, we open the command prompt. And we give the Virtual Machine access to the specified files. For this, we use the command,

icacls <Path of .vhd or .avhd file> /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\ <Virtual Machine ID> ":(F)

In this command, we replace the file path and Virtual Machine ID accordingly. And we can obtain the Virtual Machine ID from the error message.

Later, we start Virtual Machine. Once it has permission it starts successfully.

[Need assistance in fixing errors with Hyper-V? – Our Experts are available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In short, Hyper-V general access denied error vhd occurs due to improper permissions. A Virtual Machine needs access to .vhd or .avhd files in order to start it. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fixed this error.