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

Anonymous
2020-07-26T02:23:34+00:00

Hey everyone,

Name is Antonio and I'm not a regular here. But going to give this a shot and hope that the great minds here can help me get access to my 5 External Hard Drives. The brief story:

Updated to Win10 2004 a couple of weeks ago and everything was fine until a few days ago when Windows does what it normally does, break down in random areas and causes aggravation and headaches. I won't bore anyone with the large list of issues that kept growing daily, except the one that suddenly removed my access to multiple external HDD's. These hard drives house a host of my backup files (photos/videos/programs/music and more) and my video editing files for my job as well. All of a sudden my 12TB G-Speed Studio and 2 WD drives disappeared. A few hours later my 2 WD drives reappeared with the message telling me I don't have permission to access the drives. I did some reading and research and thought the permissions was the issue, however it is not and I had zero success with so many methods i've found on this site and around the web. Maybe it is, but everything i've tried regarding permissions is not working.

I went ahead and downloaded version 1909 from someplace and loaded 1909 yesterday and spent 10 hours working on getting my computer back to "normal" Still not done but whatever. Still didn't have access to the drives. Went ahead and did everything I already tried a second time with no success.

I brought the drives over to my Win7 Laptop and couldn't fix the issue there either.

I just tried doing random things that no one would normally do to their functioning hard drive just to see if I could accidentally fix the issue, but to no avail, nothing worked. I ended up formatting one of my WD drives as it only had specific files I already had backed up to another drive very recently. This wasn't a loss but my other drive is going to be if I cannot gain access. Same goes for my 12TB G-Speed

I'm at a major loss right now. While I'm still pissed at MS for this junk beta OS that I have no choice to use, I need to get passed this anger and solve this issue. I cannot do it alone and need anyone's help. I'm willing to try whatever I need to do without question or hesitation. I NEED this drive as I haven't gotten around to backing it up which was going to happen in another week when my new HDD arrives.

I greatly appreciate any and all help! :)

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-27T02:46:50+00:00

    I notice you originally said you'd downloaded 1909 from "somewhere" which can be risky since some download sources are dangerous. Always get your older version downloads from Microsoft Tech Bench here: https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

    If the drives pass diagnostics, run another full Disk Check from Command Prompt to see if the file system has issues:

    https://www.groovypost.com/howto/check-hard-dri...

    See if you can access the files on any other PC. If not try from Command prompt at boot in Repair Mode or from bootable media as shown here:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

    If they don't show up at all then run File Recovery software, starting with Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/features

    ill give this go in a bit.

    Regarding "somewhere" I just didn't want to say the exact person/place where I got it from. It's all legit and nothing fishy and nothing screwing with my PC. Wasn't aware of that site with those versions. I just added it to my bookmarks - thank you for that! :) this version has been running well, it was 2004 straight from MS that aggravated my life more than I needed right now.

    As for the dsik checks, I ran them the other day twice on each drive with the worst errors being reported in the free space. Other than that, it's been fine. I usually run disk chk's through cmd prompt in admin.

    @ Slance

    I already tried adding me/user to it only with no success. Along with adding both admin and user, everyone, system, everything - you name it, I most likely tried it - resetting everything, and so much more. Absolutely nothing worked when it came to fussing with the permissions.

    As far as the drive being logical, I never did that. It was a physical drive since day one when I took it out of the box. All this hell happened when I turned on my drive after booting up my PC on day 3 of win10 breaking down.

    I just don't understand how this **** happens from these releases and how hard it is just to gain back control of my own hard drive and files.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-26T17:10:08+00:00

    I notice you originally said you'd downloaded 1909 from "somewhere" which can be risky since some download sources are dangerous. Always get your older version downloads from Microsoft Tech Bench here: https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

    If the drives pass diagnostics, run another full Disk Check from Command Prompt to see if the file system has issues:

    https://www.groovypost.com/howto/check-hard-dri...

    See if you can access the files on any other PC. If not try from Command prompt at boot in Repair Mode or from bootable media as shown here:

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

    If they don't show up at all then run File Recovery software, starting with Recuva: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/features

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-26T16:11:50+00:00

    Forgot to add the screenshots:

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-26T16:10:41+00:00

    Hi,

    Did it allow you to change Ownership and add a User, or did that get the access denied error as well ?

    One thing you should do... Turn off Fast Startup.. If it is turned on when the computer is shutdown and then drives are removed, it can cause issues with the drives very similar to a power outage or disconnecting them when they are running.. There is a chance that this is what actually caused the problem, but I think it may still be related to Permissions..

    If you are using a Microsoft Account, try switching to a Local Account, then do the Owner\User change again.. Microsoft Accounts are more restrictive than Local Accounts..

    For Fast Startup...

    This feature only works when you do a SHUTDOWN and then Boot.

    It doesn't effect a RESTART.

    To turn it off or on...

    Go to Control panel...Power Options, and select Choose What the Power Buttons Do on the left.

    Then select Change Settings That Are Currently Unavailable near the top center of screen...

    Lower down on the window, uncheck Fast Startup.

    Good Morning Slance,

    On 2004 I hadn't turned it off, 99% sure of that. Only turned off when i was trying to gain access again. Since it didn't work and I was irritated, I then went ahead and got 1909. However it was one of the things I had done after installing 1909 the other day. So im guessing it doesn't really matter now since it's too late, if it was the issue.

    Changing permissions doesn't seem to be an issue. Adding users and such isn't either. I even downloaded the registry entry to add the "Take Ownership" to the context menu. All it did was flicker the screen and maintain the ownership I already have. Perhaps there is a combo that I haven't attempted yet that might work, but I honestly don't feel like it may work.

    Diagnostics tests were all different:

    • WD's DataGuard couldn't test the drive. Only shows up as a logical drive with no testing option. Would only test drive that were "accessible"
    • Seatools tested them all and results were good
    • DiskCheckup tested all and results were good
    • HDDSCAN tested all and results were good

    I tried others but they would only recognize internal drives or specific type drives.My assumption from the results is that my drives are still healthy and somehow windows screwed something up. I've read a lot of people loosing access with win10 dating back 4 years. I'm not in shock that they haven't done whatever they could to prevent this from happening since it seems all they care about is pumping out whatever to whomever regardless of the implications on the user.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-26T13:24:56+00:00

    Hi,

    Did it allow you to change Ownership and add a User, or did that get the access denied error as well ?

    One thing you should do... Turn off Fast Startup.. If it is turned on when the computer is shutdown and then drives are removed, it can cause issues with the drives very similar to a power outage or disconnecting them when they are running.. There is a chance that this is what actually caused the problem, but I think it may still be related to Permissions..

    If you are using a Microsoft Account, try switching to a Local Account, then do the Owner\User change again.. Microsoft Accounts are more restrictive than Local Accounts..

    For Fast Startup...

    This feature only works when you do a SHUTDOWN and then Boot.

    It doesn't effect a RESTART.

    To turn it off or on...

    Go to Control panel...Power Options, and select Choose What the Power Buttons Do on the left.

    Then select Change Settings That Are Currently Unavailable near the top center of screen...

    Lower down on the window, uncheck Fast Startup.

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