Win10 2004 suddenly removed access to multiple external hard drives. In desperate need of help [ cannot find a solution :( ]

Hi,

Part of the problem may be that the Owner is "Administrators".. That probably will not work for various reasons to long to type..

You should make your account the owner, which would be the User name of your C:\USER folder...

Then add your account as a User with full permission..

Some people have had better luck setting the Owner as "Everyone" and adding "Everyone" as a Use with Full Permissions... This can be helpful when switching external drives between different machines..

Edit... Is there any particular reason one of your drives was created as a "Logical" drive ?

No, actually there are many who feel that way who I help here every day.  It's an entirely different, flipped situation in forums than it was from the exciting days of Windows 7.

Just know I'll be here to help you until it's resolved, and I don't give up.

Hey Greg,

Thank you for your reply! I actually came across a few of your forum posts around in my searches and tried what you had proposed to others, but didn't work for me :(. I will however, start all over again because I know I could've missed something. Going to get started on your list here and will reply when complete.

I did, however, add my issues to the feedback hub, but my experience with the feedback hub for the last 3/4 years has always been lackluster and wasteful. Never a response, never a fix and never anyone to directly help me there. My last straw was when someone finally reached out to me last year and told me I was the only one with that specific issue and there was nothing else they could do. True support comes from communities and volunteers like yourself and I greatly appreciate this. I don't expect MS direct to actually fix my issues.

I know I must sound bitter and angry but, enough is enough at some point ya know?

Thank you again!

Hi,

Most likely something happened with your Login and\or Account.. A slight change could lock you out..

You probably need to take Ownership of the drives and Add yourself as a User with Full Permissions.. Or you could set  the Owner as "Everyone" and add Everyone as a User with Full Permissions..

A lot of times people will change the Ownership of a folder or drive, but not add that Owner as a User.. A reasonable person would think that the User would be changed automatically along with the Owner, but it does not work that way..

I will include the steps just in case...

To add a user, select Security Tab... click on EDIT and select ADD....then

1. Advanced
2. Find Now
3. Select User from list...Your user name, or any you want to add.

To Change Ownership and add OwnerName as a USER

Select Security Tab and then ADVANCED at the bottom.

Here you can edit the permissions for existing users and\or add another..

Click "CHANGE" next to the current Owner, Then....

1. Advanced
2. Find Now
3. Select User from list...Your user name, or any you want to add
4. Check the box "Replace Owner On Subcontainers and Objects" and hit "APPLY"

Once you have Ownership you can then ADD your Account as mentioned above, and Delete or EDIT the other Accounts...

Hi Hockey. I'm G Greg, an installation specialist, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator, here to help you.

1. If you want to report this to Microsoft use the Feedback Hub app in Start Menu where developers are tasked to process consumer feedback. They will not even see it here. This is a tech forums staffed mostly by volunteers trying to help others with your problems.

If you want to post back a Share link from your Feedback here others who see this thread can vote it up and add to it.

2. See if you can System Restore to a point before the problem began following this guide: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-system-r...

If the problem repeats then check which Windows Updates were installed at Settings > Update & Security > Windows Updates > Update History, uninstall them there or System Restore again, then immediately check for and block the Updates with the Hide Updates tool explained here: https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-to-uninsta...

I'll give you all possible fixes for External Drive blocking access or not detected. Even if you've tried one please try it again in sequence and report back results. I'll be standing by to help you here:

3. Right click Start button to open Disk Management, scroll down to try to find the drive on the map by size and label, right click on it to assign a drive letter so it's detected in File Explorer.
4. For USB drive not detected issue, first try steps here: https://mspoweruser.com/solved-usb-device-not-r...
5. Go into Device Manager to look for the drive under Disk Drives. It may be listed by it's model or Serial which you can google to determine which is it. Click on the Device, then Driver tab, choose Roll Back if available. If not then choose Uninstall, restart PC to reinstall driver. If that fails choose Update Driver, first Automatically, then if that fails choose Browse > Let Me Pick to try all previous drivers.
6. If no newer or this doesn't help, then go to the USB category in Device Manager, open each Enhanced, Hub and Host controller, from Driver tab select Roll back if available, or if not choose Uninstall.

If your keyboard and mouse are USB, first program the power button to effect the needed restart after Rolling back or uninstalling the driver. Go to Settings > System > Power & Sleep > Additional Power Settings > Choose what Power buttons do to choose Shutdown.

7. Test the drive using diagnostics to know for sure it's condition: https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testin...

Follow this up with a DIsk Check from the Command Prompt if necessary: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/check-hard-dri...

8. Check if the drive is detected in another PC. If so back up the data to it's desktop.

Then plug it back into the PC which cannot detect it, reformat in Disk Management:

http://www.wikihow.com/Format-an-External-Hard-...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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