Sync Windows 7 Protected Directories

[sc52309]

I'm trying to sync the entire C:\ drive (with certain exclusions) of a Windows 7 PC. However, with the new protections build in to this version of Windows, FreeFileSync is not able to write to the C:\ drive. This results in the following errors. Are there any workarounds?

Cannot set directory lock for 'C:\'.
Cannot write file 'C:\sync.ffs_lock'.
Error Code 5: Access is denied. (CreateFile)

Cannot set directory lock for 'C:\'.
Cannot write file 'C:\sync.ffs_db'.
Error Code 5: Access is denied. (CreateFile)

[Zenju]

You need to elevate the FFS process to have admin rights.

[sc52309]

That works when launching manually, but there is no way to do that when launching automatically at startup (i.e. when adding RealtimeSync to the startup folder)

[banjo-p]

That works when launching manually, but there is no way to do that when launching automatically at startup (i.e. when adding RealtimeSync to the startup folder)

I think you can set "run as admin" in the properties (right click) for the RealTimeSync executable - look in the Compatibility tab

[adriensf]

For those the beginners, here is are more details on the very correct solution of Zenju and steve-p.

If you run the synchronization using the batch file created by FFS, then you can't "Run as Admin" because this option is not available in the right-click menu.

What you need to do in that case is to set the FreeFileSync program itself to run as Admin, not the batch. To do so:
- Go in the folder where FFS is installed (on my computer it's C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\)
- Right click on the FreeFileSync.exe file (the one with the two green arrows)
- Properties
- Compatibility tab
- Check the box "Run this porgram as an administrator"
- Click Apply
- Click Ok

Now you should be able to double-click the batch file without having the error you mentioned.