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

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...

Hey Slance,

Thank you for your reply. I saw some of your help on the forums as well and tried them with no success. I also tried what you mentioned above several times on all drives and nothing worked :(

If the drives show up but are inaccessible in Windows 7, too, then this is not Windows 10's fault. There is something that was done to the drives, requiring the data be moved off, drives wiped with Diskpart and reformatted as Data drives in Disk mgmt:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase...

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-h...

If problems persist I'd run the hard drive diagnostics:

https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testin...

Best is to use the manufacturer's own if there is one, otherwise use Seatools bootable long test: http://blog.nowherelan.com/2013/04/04/boot-seat...

With all the drives connected please post a screenshot of Disk Management, which I read like a doctor reads X-rays. Follow the steps here so I can see everything needed to advise you: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/foru...

If the drives show up but are inaccessible in Windows 7, too, then this is not Windows 10's fault. There is something that was done to the drives, requiring the data be moved off, drives wiped with Diskpart and reformatted as Data drives in Disk mgmt:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase...

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-format-new-h...

If problems persist I'd run the hard drive diagnostics:

https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testin...

Best is to use the manufacturer's own if there is one, otherwise use Seatools bootable long test: http://blog.nowherelan.com/2013/04/04/boot-seat...

With all the drives connected please post a screenshot of Disk Management, which I read like a doctor reads X-rays. Follow the steps here so I can see everything needed to advise you: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/foru...

I understand you know a lot more about this than I do, but I still feel this is Win10's fault. I've been using these drives for awhile under Windows 7. Only recently started using Windows 10 for about 3 months now. Never had OS issues until the recent 2004 update. Never had HDD issues until things started going wrong (Windows update broke with constant errors and wouldn't work, MS Store wouldn't find updates, download current pending updates and randomly brought us .Net Framework downloads that it couldn't download from 2013, 2015 and 2017, Couldn't install anything from the store as well. Game Pass games would crash immediately because they couldn't either sign me in or non-game pass games wouldn't work because they couldn't connect to MS Store to check for updates. Certain app/programs wouldn't work either if they were from MS. My PC started to randomly shutdown and restart on it's own unrelated to updates because the updater was broken. It was following one of these random shutdowns that the drives became inaccessible.

Permissions all show that I had and have the permissions to access them, but I can't access them. Makes no sense to me :( I really can't lose the data on some of these drives.

I already ran diagnostics on the drives and nothing is wrong. Is that possible? I honestly have no problem starting fresh with these drives, but I NEED these files.

Just wanted to add that info before I continue. Maybe it might help? Thank you for your continued assistance.

It's 1am and I'm tired for a change. Going to get some rest since it's been some long days since this nonsense started. Going to let the long tests run over night and report back tomorrow.

Once again Greg, thank you for your ongoing help.

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.