This is a harder one to ask since I don't really have a clear picture of what I'm asking.
But, in a plain vanilla install of Windows Server 2012 (with only Web Server role/features enabled), installing SQL Server 2012 on top of it is taking over drive's (i.e. I get the "Access Denied" message when trying to open them up through explorer).
I have 3 drive's, C, D and E. During the installation of SQL Server 2012, I specify to install the core files to C:\Program Files… (i.e. the default destination), the temp database and tempdb log to D:\ (root) and the user databases and user db logs to E:\ (root). Before install, I can access the drives as expected but after the SQL Server 2012 installation completes I can no longer access the drives. i.e. Can't open them through explorer and the usage (space used) bar indicator doesn't display either.
Does anyone know what the cause of this is? Is it because I'm specifying installs to the root's of D and E (C still operates normally)? Is it something with SQL Server 2012 security? The install was done through an Admin account and I'm going back and trying to access the drive's through an Admin account.
It doesn't inhibit the actual usage of the database or creating new databases, as everything seems to function properly, it just bugs me that this is happening and don't want to use this for a production web machine (used just for IIS 8 and SQL Server) until I at least get a better understanding of this.
Any clarification is greatly appreciated.
Best Answer
Oops... should mark this as answered.
The issue simply was specifying the root of the drive. Don't do that.
When specifying a folder in that drive, all is well.