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
    2020-07-31T21:53:14+00:00

    Hi,

    I just encountered your ChkDsk issue after a Shutdown with Fast Startup turned off..

    Everything worked good several times prior.. I was unable to access anything after booting and turning it on.. After a restart and an automatic ChkDsk I was able to access the files normally, but there was a hidden "Found.00" folder that had appeared..

    The only thing I can recall doing differently is that on this last occasion I manually powered off the USB 3.0 drive after shutting down the computer.. I am looking into this some more after deleting the contents and reformatting.. This is a new drive with less than 100 hours use that has worked perfectly until now..

    It is almost acting like turning off Fast Startup is not deactivating all of the Fast Startup functions..

    And then I wasn't alone. I hope your drive is ok and doesn't run into anymore issues! Especially what I've been going through. You shouldn't have to deal with this nonsense. No one should!

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-31T22:12:36+00:00

    Hi,

    I was using a spare HDD, so any data loss is not an issue..

    I have been unable to repeat the malfunction though.. The only thing I can think that is different is that I deleted the partition and reformatted using the build having problems.. (2004)..

    I don't doubt that Windows 10 is behind the problem in some fashion.. At least the new 2004 build anyway..

    It is not ChkDsk though for sure.. Something else is happening that is triggering ChkDsk to run..

    You are correct that a good number of people are reporting ChkDsk running for no reason.. Again, I do not believe that ChkDsk is the cause of the problem.. It is responding to something happening to the drive caused by something else.. Most people are not even aware of Fast Startup and the issues it can cause..

    It is probably by far the biggest cause of most reports of the ChkDsk running.. Simply removing power from your motherboard in any fashion with Fast Startup enabled will likely cause ChkDsk to run on the next boot, and possibly cause irreparable corruption to the drive(s)..

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-19T21:10:12+00:00

    Hey Gentlemen,

    So i've been using these past few weeks to work on the recovery files, shifting content around and making new backups. I even backed up the recovery files to be safe, which after what just happened, was the right thing to do. It will, however, require an entire restart of going through all the files again thanks to a repeat performance of Windows 10...

    After working on the drive for weeks on Windows 7, I needed to connect it to my Win10 PC again to get some other files transferred over and out. I left my PC running overnight to handle the long transfers. Everything was fine this morning. I ejected and shutdown all my drives and then the PC. a few hours later I turned on my Win10 PC and after logging in, I turned on my external and behold, windows asking me to format one drive and then telling me the other drive is no longer accessible. Thus repeating the same issue I had under 2004 now happens in version 1909.

    I can say after all that work on that drive, I am once again **** pissed off at the redundant work I need to do again. The only saving grace is that I don't have to run recoveries again. Just have to waste my time going through recovery files again, renaming and recreating backups.

    All I did was turn it on and Windows did something either before I shut down earlier overnight, or the moment the drives were turned on. It's a shame because somehow, a couple weeks ago, windows update went corrupt and disappeared, which I was excited about and no longer have to use sledgehammer. I tried getting it back anyway so I could at least update defender, but of course, nothing worked and I'll assume the only option that will work is an entire reset again. Which now knowing that this issue isn't related to version 2004, or 1909, it's just a general windows 10 issue that will most likely never get resolved.

    Just wanted to get this info out feeling it's kinda significant to windows users, rather than the programmers at MS.

    And to provide more details - the drives seemed to have been wiped clean by windows and there is nothing on the drives. Even tells me "the Volume does not contain a recognized file system. It was NTFS who knows what it is now. But it doesn't matter since they are both empty and need to be reformatted and never used on windows 10 again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-08-19T22:57:44+00:00

    Hi,

    I don't have a clue as to what would be causing that on such a repeated basis..

    I thought maybe turning off Fast Startup was for some reason not actually turning off all of it's features..

    If this is also happening on 1909, that is even more strange..

    After the one time I was able to duplicate your problem, I have not been able to do it again..

    I switch my external drives between Win 7 Pro and 10 Pro on a frequent basis and have never encountered something like that.. Very rarely I will need to allow ChkDsk to run, but no issues are found and everything works..

    Not only do I do this with USB drives, but SATA as well.. I have run SATA power and data cables to an area outside the computer on a shelf for this purpose..

    There may be a problem with Windows 10, but I am thinking there is some kind of an unknown contributing factor as well.. Otherwise I would be having a lot more of these issues, and there would be a lot more of this showing up on the Forums..

    I suppose it could even be hardware\driver related in some fashion... I know all the guessing is of little help, but maybe something to think about..

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-08-19T23:30:18+00:00

    Hi,

    I don't have a clue as to what would be causing that on such a repeated basis..

    I thought maybe turning off Fast Startup was for some reason not actually turning off all of it's features..

    If this is also happening on 1909, that is even more strange..

    After the one time I was able to duplicate your problem, I have not been able to do it again..

    I switch my external drives between Win 7 Pro and 10 Pro on a frequent basis and have never encountered something like that.. Very rarely I will need to allow ChkDsk to run, but no issues are found and everything works..

    Not only do I do this with USB drives, but SATA as well.. I have run SATA power and data cables to an area outside the computer on a shelf for this purpose..

    There may be a problem with Windows 10, but I am thinking there is some kind of an unknown contributing factor as well.. Otherwise I would be having a lot more of these issues, and there would be a lot more of this showing up on the Forums..

    I suppose it could even be hardware\driver related in some fashion... I know all the guessing is of little help, but maybe something to think about..

    It's expected with Win10. Turns out the Drives were changed from NTFS to RAW. Ran a fix I found online through cmd and thankfully both drives are back to NTFS and the data is showing it's there. Was able to fuss with the permissions on one drive and regain access and everything seems to be fine with it. The other drive just finished getting repaired back to NTFS and now I'm going to fuss with the permissions and hope there is no damage.

    I decided I'm going to let Windows keep breaking down until I have no other choice but to wipe it clean again. Any recommendations on which version of Windows10 I should reinstall? I'm not a fan of these "features" they keep releasing and I don't need them. I just want to edit my video, play my games and VR, use Plex and, what seems to be impossible, backup and manage data on external drives.

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