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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

49 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2020-08-25T00:40:04+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks for that.. I will check it out..

    I should mention that I had another issue as well.. Not a lost drive, or RAW, but at least one corrupted file after a copy\paste operation.. It was a Acronis System Image.. What else may be bad is had to say..

    No Prob. While I'm not surprised, I truly hope you have no other issues. This hasn't been my favorite time of the year with all these recoveries and backups and copying and all that. I hope things don't start breaking down for you!

    If anything good has come out of Win10, for me at least, is to no longer 'back those up on the other drive later". Everything gets done immediately. So grateful Win7 is still solid these days.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-25T20:53:17+00:00

    Man, I get the same problem, I have a computer with w10 ver 1803 and w7 in another pc and the hard drive works fines, but when I put it in a w10 2004 gave me the same error. I tried to change user security, but it's totally block to insert a new user. I really don't know what to do anymore... Thx!!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2020-09-28T11:18:07+00:00

    Reading through this thread I spotted that you reported your computer was an HP. This actually could be the root cause of this error. Other HP users reported errors accessing external drives and this was caused by a “security feature” that the HP system management had set. You can google to find the exact steps to resolve. 

    Ted

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2020-09-28T17:16:57+00:00

    not hp pc :( dell, LG

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2020-09-28T18:50:02+00:00

    Man, I get the same problem, I have a computer with w10 ver 1803 and w7 in another pc and the hard drive works fines, but when I put it in a w10 2004 gave me the same error. I tried to change user security, but it's totally block to insert a new user. I really don't know what to do anymore... Thx!!  

    The first time this happened, I was able to get permissions back by adding every single possible permission to the drives. Not sure which one, or ones, would do the trick, but that's how I eventually got my "access" back.

    The 2nd time around changing my drives to RAW format, was a bit scary, but thankfully adding permissions one by one eventually gave me access back. But it happened at a different time than the first while adding permissions in order, so all I can say is that 10 is just screwing with us.

    However, I found a way, for me at least so far, to avoid anymore external drive issues with this garbage OS. Only connect and turn on an external drive when the computer has been booted up and you are logged into your account. Then do what you need to do with them and then immediately eject and remove the drives. Never let them stay on, connected and idle. I ran into a permissions issues with this. Never run an disk check at boot as they will for sure mess with your drives. I did that twice and got screwed both times. Run a disk check via old school DOS while logged in only.

    You will probably get a message that the drive may still be in use. DO NOT remove them anyway even if the hard drive is not doing anything because windows is randomly doing something and if you disconnect it you're likely to run into another issue like I did. After a few minutes that message will go away. However, if you feel windows is screwing with your drive, just pull the connection. Better to chance one or a few damaged files, rather than your whole drives and lose nearly every thing like I did. Do not leave the drives on and connected when shutting down, nor when booting up. I've run into issues every time I did the opposite, especially when I was testing what to do.

    I wish you the best and please let us know if you've resolved it.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments