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Thread ID: 136697	2014-04-02 23:00:00	Portable drive "not accessible: Access is denied"	argus (366)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1371848	2014-04-02 23:00:00	I know there's a remedy for this one; I expected to find the answer here already. Starting up a new 64-bit Windows 7 (Home Premium) PC. My 1TByte portable archive drive is giving me an "access is denied" message. A lot of discussion of this in web forums and I found a supposed remedy at Microsoft's site tinyurl.com I've been changing permissions and security settings for about half an hour, knowing the remedy is there somewhere; I've now reached the stage of being tempted to flail around trying things at random, rather than systematically approaching the problem; and that's dangerous. So: can you point me at a set of step-by-step instructions where everything that I am supposed to see I actually see. I feel some of the advice was written for a previous version. Things have subtly different names (perhaps) or I'm just not spotting them. Steps seem to be missing from some sets of instructions (eg "go to advanced" [security settings] press the "edit" button." There's no edit button visible on that panel, until I press the button "change permissions" I wonder if that's what I'm supposed to be doing. I've ended up very confused. The portable drive worked fine on my XP netbook. Don't like to go near XP now, but hooked it up and checked that it still does. My backup drive works on the new Windows 7 machine, no problem. They're both USB-attached drives of the same kind, both initialised on the same old (and now broken) Windows 7 desktop. But one is accessible and the other not. There must be reliable and relevant instructions somewhere. Please point me there or paraphrase.	argus (366)
1371849	2014-04-03 00:21:00	So: can you point me at a set of step-by-step instructions where everything that I am supposed to see I actually see. Not really that simple. Needs proper diag of the issue. There is often not a simple fix for issues this strange. You description is a little bit vague, are there 2x Win7 PC's or 1 ? So it works on another Win7 PC but not this one ? Just exactly what is the issue, can you see folders in the drive but not open them ? Can you see the HD but not 'open' the HD to see the folders? What software was used to do the backup . can you write a txt file to that drive (as a test) on the problem PC ? Is the USB HD 100% working with no issues? have you run a chkdsk via the other PC? As you have found, often the 'fixes' found on the interweb: dont work, are for a different issue with similar symptoms, are offered up by people who may not have a clue.	1101 (13337)
1371850	2014-04-03 02:43:00	Did you try this www.google.com.au ?	dugimodo (138)
1371851	2014-04-03 07:47:00	Google this phrase "take ownership to access portable hdd"	zqwerty (97)
1371852	2014-04-03 17:41:00	Not really that simple. Needs proper diag of the issue. There is often not a simple fix for issues this strange. You description is a little bit vague, are there 2x Win7 PC's or 1 ? So it works on another Win7 PC but not this one ? Just exactly what is the issue, can you see folders in the drive but not open them ? Can you see the HD but not 'open' the HD to see the folders? What software was used to do the backup . can you write a txt file to that drive (as a test) on the problem PC ? Is the USB HD 100% working with no issues? have you run a chkdsk via the other PC? As you have found, often the 'fixes' found on the interweb: dont work, are for a different issue with similar symptoms, are offered up by people who may not have a clue. The portable drive in question WORKED (past tense) on another Windows 7 PC. That PC is now retired. The C drive is failing and Windows will no longer boot. [Had it operating for a while with Ubuntu, but that's a separate issue]. The machine giving the "access denied" message is a new Windows 7 PC. I also have an old netbook which runs Windows XP. That can see the portable drive no problem. On the new (troublesome) Windows 7 system, I can see the disk icon, but cannot open it to see folders. No specific software was used to transfer files to the drive - just copy & paste. There are some backup files made years ago by Norton Ghost, but they're no longer relevant and I don't need them. The rest is archived material, rather than "backup" in the Ghost sense of the term. I have meanwhile, pulled another, smaller, portable drive out of a back cupboard. The new system will see that. I currently have both drives connected to the XP netbook and am copy-pasting everything that matters to the smaller drive. Assuming I can see all that stuff from the new PC, my plan was then simply to reformat the 1TB drive. However, the page another respondent points to seems to have fuller advice about changing ownership and permissions than the ones I'd seen; in particular it gives a clear answer to one stage of the needed changes which had puzzled me. So I'll give that a try before I resort to reformatting the troubled drive. If that doesn't work, I'll try your text-document test and report back. I'm betting I won't be able to write anything to the 1TB drive from the new PC without getting the "access forbidden" message. Thanks both of you.	argus (366)
1371853	2014-04-03 21:27:00	just btw, for future reference (after you sort out this issue) copy & paste is the single most unreliable way of doing a backup. If there is an issue with even a single file, it can just quit there & not give any warning. It might be OK if you only have a few files to backup. Usually not recommended at all for serious reliable backups.	1101 (13337)
1371854	2014-04-03 21:29:00	Get this reg file dbl click on it. (www.howtogeek.com) Then right mouse on the hdd if you can see it / select take ownership. Then see what happens	Speedy Gonzales (78)
1371855	2014-04-03 22:29:00	If you do format it on the new PC, make sure its readable/writeable on other PC's afterwards . It would also be worth checking that the old smaller USB drive is actually readable on the new PC.	1101 (13337)
1371856	2014-04-03 23:35:00	It is for this reason NTFS should not be used on portable harddrives. Stick to ExFAT and you will not run into this problem. ExFAT is supported on WIndows XP upwards and on OSX Snow Leopard upwards, so you could read/write on both.	tmrafi (5179)
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