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

I think it's because you replied to yourself that I wasn't sent the Disk Mgmt screenshots in the special unit I work in. I went and found them now.

There are potentially serious problems shown in Disk Mgmt. Why is there a System Reserved partition on Disk 1, but not on Disk0 which is where I see Windows is booting itself as signified by the System Active flags both being on C.

Is there a multi-boot OS on Disk1 which uses the System Reserved partition also on Disk1, which should not be marked Active if it is not operative, and not have a drive letter if it is? When a disk is repurposed as a data drive only, the System Reserved or EFI System (for the modern UEFI BIOS) partitions must be deleted off the drive at a minimum, and really should have the drives wiped to clear boot code that can interfere later.

Why is Disk3 marked Active which should only point to a bootable drive? The Active flag causes the BIOS to query the drive for boot files and pause if there are leftover boot file before moving on to find the present System flagged Active partition.

If Disk1 and 3 Active flags are not pointing to a System partition booting Windows on those drives, then remove them using Diskpart as shown here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-par...

Then if there is no other Windows booting on this system, delete the unused System Reserved partition on Disk1 in Disk Mgmt, or if it blocks it use the Command Prompt again to run EISA commands from here: 

https://techjourney.net/delete-and-remove-prote...

I'm assuming you don't have the modern EFI BIOS or you'd have installed Windows properly in such a case to UEFI which has modern Security and other advancements. Not installing to UEFI on a UEFI BIOS is like buying a new car and disabling all the safety features.

I would remove this Sledgehammer program because the only stable way known to block Updates without blowback is setting a Metered Connection:

https://www.howtogeek.com/226722/how-when-and-w...

But it's safer to block the Updates that cause problems using Show/Hide Updates tool:

https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-to-uninsta...

For 2004 it has nothing new except more problems, so I'd wait for the next Version Update in the fall.

I would remove this Sledgehammer program because the only stable way known to block Updates without blowback is setting a Metered Connection:

https://www.howtogeek.com/226722/how-when-and-w...

But it's safer to block the Updates that cause problems using Show/Hide Updates tool:

https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how-to-uninsta...

For 2004 it has nothing new except more problems, so I'd wait for the next Version Update in the fall.

As I appreciate your input on this, I'm going to keep sledgehammer. For the reasons that I don't trust MS for anything when it comes to updates. They will always find a way to do something that resets settings (like they have already) without me knowing about it and going ahead with updates and installations I don't want. I feel this is the best route with these simple scripts to turn on and off updates. I don't want anymore updates at this point and I honestly don't care what "critical" updates they feel I need. I'm deflated at this point after waiting over 15 hours for recuva to complete to only be able to save 5 files. Gave me an error at the very end and just about everything is unrecoverable. 2004 phucked my drives up and I have no hope for the other drives. My G-Speed most likely has 12TB's of unrecoverable files and im just done at this point.

regarding the disk management. I believe disk 0 was created when I installed 1909 over 2004. I didn't wipe it clean and boot install from a disk or anything, I just ran the exe setup and took it from there. There is no dual boot, although I was considering putting on linux a couple of months ago.

I wish windows 10 wasn't required for certain programs and such to run. Windows 7 is the best out there compared to what users have to endure with 10.

I'm done at this point though. I played with permissions again and somehow the drive is now accessible but nothing is there. I'm able to browse through the found.000 folders but it's all for not. Maybe ill check if there are any data recovery programs out there that can maybe do a better job, but im done. I've lost too much and I don't even want to use this PC anymore. Going to go back on my Win7 laptop and do what I can from there and give up all the other stuff. Just isnt worth it ya know?

I greatly appreciate the help you both offered. Not often to find dedicated users like yourself greg looking to go above and beyond until a resolve is found, but there is no resolve here it seems. I still can't even get my Gspeed to show up so I can only imagine what windows did to it. I've had enough for today.

Have a goodnight gentlemen. Again I appreciate the help.

Antonio, I understand the frustration which I deal with here every day and gets to me, too.

I'm just curious about what you mean by Disk0 being created by the Version upgrade being run from .exe. Was that one of the data drives that you're missing?

Did you previously have Windows 10 on Disk1 next to the EFI System Partition which is where it should be? Or is E a data partition with 1.2 gb of data on it? Did it ever have Windows on it to explain why it's next to an EFI System partition?

As to the two external drives the disk listings at top of the Disk Manager seem to think they have quite a bit of data on them. I just don't know what happened to them. I do see threads here regularly with people saying they lost data off of unrelated drives when Updates were run, I also try everything possible to try to find it or explain what happened, but at this point I cannot say for sure or even guess.

I'm sorry. The best I can advise at this point is to double up on your backups to avoid it happening again, but I know that doesn't help much now. I am going to bring it up in our MVP channel and at a Product Group meeting we're having later this month, to ask if others are seeing this, too. If so we'll start pressing it, and I won't forget this.

Antonio, I understand the frustration which I deal with here every day and gets to me, too.

I'm just curious about what you mean by Disk0 being created by the Version upgrade being run from .exe. Was that one of the data drives that you're missing?

Did you previously have Windows 10 on Disk1 next to the EFI System Partition which is where it should be? Or is E a data partition with 1.2 gb of data on it? Did it ever have Windows on it to explain why it's next to an EFI System partition?

As to the two external drives the disk listings at top of the Disk Manager seem to think they have quite a bit of data on them. I just don't know what happened to them. I do see threads here regularly with people saying they lost data off of unrelated drives when Updates were run, I also try everything possible to try to find it or explain what happened, but at this point I cannot say for sure or even guess.

I'm sorry. The best I can advise at this point is to double up on your backups to avoid it happening again, but I know that doesn't help much now. I am going to bring it up in our MVP channel and at a Product Group meeting we're having later this month, to ask if others are seeing this, too. If so we'll start pressing it, and I won't forget this.

Hey Greg,

I downloaded an ISO version, mounted the image and ran the setup. It took a few minutes while it gathered info before going ahead with the installation. Upon successful installation, i went to DM and saw Disk 0/1 with a 2nd partition. Figured it was created or left behind from 2004. Perhaps the reserved for system was saved from 2004 and a new one created with 1909

E drive is an additional HDD I installed for data storage, so nothing to do with Win10 - thankfully that drive didn't get damaged. And yes, Disk 0 is Windows 10 initial installation from day 1 in May and still current.

It's confusing I know. The Drive we were working on, when it finally showed back up, still shows the data full, but nothing is there. Like all my files are invisible. Going to try some more recovery programs to give it another shot or 2. after that, im going to accept my losses on this drive, reformat and move onto my 12TB G-Speed Studio with the hopes I can possibly salvage it.

Thank you for your efforts Greg. If there's anything significant from your upcoming discussion that you feel I would benefit from knowing, please let me know in this thread if it's still around. I tried to get here earlier but kept receiving long loading times followed by errors as if this thread never happened.