Discovered this today from within Windows 7. …Any software process that involves copying, moving, or even deleting the autorun.inf file can fail as a result of current default antivirus software (aka AV) behavior. This file is at the root of every Windows drive.
In preparation for an SBS 2011 install I wanted to create a bootable USB drive of the install media. To start I attempted to clean off the drive of all its contents but that process failed with the autorun.inf file. Then I realized that I should’ve just reformatted so to be thorough; of course that sledge-a-matic action worked.
I’ve done this before for SBS 2011 and WHS 2011 which can require this type of USB drive install media on headless servers. The odd thing is that never before was this an issue so this must be something new that has emerged behind the security scenes but of which I was not aware. What I uncovered was the Trend Micro WFBS Agent settings were blocking both ‘delete’ and ‘copy’ actions to the autorun.inf file. This isn’t specific to just TM though as the Google search result I found pointed to a different AV vendor. If you hit this error, disable the AV temporarily as the workaround.
Initially I opted to go the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool method (creates a bootable USB drive from ISO or DVD) but hit an issue when it failed during the copying process. After trying variations and getting the same failed result, I opted to go the longer manual creation route as detailed by Tim Barrett in his www.NoGeekLeftBehind.com blog. During that process I hit the root issue in a way that gave me a usable error message to find the solution. After disabling the AV I hit success.
Upwards in Business - Sisyphus meets IT 