Can't copy files from external drive 7

[moonring]

Hi,

I have a SimpleTech external hard drive ( formatted as NTFS ), and a few days ago I needed to reformat my PC ( Windows XP ), so I copied my docs, my pictures, etc, to this external drive. So far so good.
After I reformatted my PC ( again installed Win XP ), I tried to copy the files back to this PC from the external drive, but I couldn't do it for all the files, some files could be copied, and some not ( about 50/50 ), error message:

Warning: access denied.

Many files were read only, they couldn't be copied or moved elsewhere due to some changed permission issues. I tried for a few days, tried to log in safe mode, turned the permissions "allow" for all, but no results. I tried moving/copying the files under linux, but the same exact issue, some files could be copied/moved and some not, same error message:

You don't have permission for this action.

Can't even change permissions as root, and I'm stuck now !

Any ideas what else should I try, anything I need to change ?

Thanks.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

If you still need to get the other 5%, irreplaceable photos for example.

If the files can be opened in an application i.e. your pictures in Photoshop (you said that they were read only) then the solution may be as simple as opening them in the application and saving them again in a new location with a new name.

I've run into this a few times in the past.