External hard drive folders inaccessible "Access denied."

[Home777]

Hi all,

I have a problem with an external drive and am hoping some of you might know how to fix my problem.
I have a 3-year old Seagate 7200 rpm 250 GB ATA-100 3.5” hard drive in a USB 2.0/Firewire enclosure. About a year ago, it started denying me access to certain folders. I’m using a Dell laptop with XP SP2. I’d click on a folder and it would say “<Folder Name > is not accessible. Access denied.” What makes this more strange is that the drive functions fine mechanically and even indicates from overall drive space that the inaccessible folders are present on the drive. How can I get to them again?

I want to regain access to these folders, save the files I need, and reformat the drive. People warn about not using the MBR tool as it can wipe files or something. I’ve tried SpinRite’s level 2 recovery, and it did not recreate the files.

Any ideas are welcomed. Thanks,

Russ

 

[Freestone]

You more than likely need to take ownership of the files:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[vacunita]

2 questions: is the drive formatted NTFS and did you change users?

If you answer No to either or both, then its not an ownership issue

It may be a corruption issue. Try running chkdsk on the drive and see if find any orphaned files, or corrupted folders.

You can also try Getdataback from runtime.org to make sure the data in those folders is still there.

Also make sure show hidden files and folders is checked, and look for folder's named found.000x where x is a number. Sometimes windows will recover files into those folders.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[Home777]

Another user suggested a Microsoft bulletin that told how to take ownership for folders (

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421)

I tried it and am now I think halfway to a solution:

I have XP Pro SP2.
Disabled simple file sharing.
Right-clicked on drive > Properties > Security > Advanced > Owner > checked box that says "Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects." After clicking yes to a notification dialog about "replacing permissions and giving Full Control," it processed the command for about a minute. After this, I could see all folders and files. Wow!

However, my problem now is this: I can see the folders and files and their sizes, but when I click to view them (example: a JPG photo I took, it won't preview the file or let me open it in Photoshop. It says in Photoshop that the file is marked "read-only" but when I uncheck that box in file properties and click OK, it still will not let me open or view the file. I can see the modified date and the size, but I can't open it.

I'm logged in as Administrator. Help!

Russ

 

[Freestone]

I suggested the taking ownership of files. I am glad that suggestion helped.

What file system is on the drive in question? If it is NTFS, now that you access, you may need to check the Security settings on the folders and/or files. Perhaps the user ID you are logged in as has Read permissions only.

 

[Home777]

Hi Freestone,
Sorry! You're right; thanks for your help both times. The drive is formatted NTFS.

How would I check or change the Read permissions of my user ID?

Thanks so much!
Russ

 

[Home777]

Hey!! It's working! I was experimenting in a lower level folder just now and had to check Full Control at the top level (the drive letter and drive name). Another person pointed out that Special Permissions, the last of the checkboxes had to be unchecked.

Thank you so much for your help and input!! This is great!!
Russ

 

[Freestone]

I am happy you got things working, and more importantly, reporting back your solution and success.