VisualSVN on Windows 2012 - how to run "svnadmin hotcopy" (getting Access is Denied)

Question

Following this as a guide: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33055/what-is-the-best-way-to-backup-subversion-repositories

I've tried the following commmands:

svnadmin hotcopy "C:\Repositories" > "C:\BackupSVN" svnadmin hotcopy "C:\Repositories\*" > "C:\BackupSVN" svnadmin hotcopy "C:\Repositories\TestRepo1" > "C:\BackupSVN" 

However all 3 commands result in "Access is denied"

I've tried them at an "Administrator" command prompt as well, still the same error.

SO:

How can I properly run an svnadmin hotcopy command (or even svnadmin dump) on a Windows 2012 server? What am I missing?

Answer 1

Grrr...I figured it out. Stupid default UAC on Windows 2012.

Deactivating UAC in Windows 2008 R2 was possible via running msconfig (for example winkey+r -> msconfig), going to the Tools tab and launching "Change UAC settings". There, you select "Never notify" to disable UAC. The same approach is still available in Windows Server 2012, though UAC is still active after you selected "Never notify". You have the option to turn off UAC via registry by changing the DWORD "EnableLUA" from 1 to 0 in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system". You will get a notification that a reboot is required. After the reboot, UAC is disabled.

CREDIT: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13953.windows-server-2012-deactivating-uac.aspx