Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

jesper — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:10:29 GMT

The reason you have no "effin security tab" is because you are using Windows Vista Home. I can't recall in which SKUs that tab is removed, but it is not present in some of them, just like it was not present in XP Home. You need to do the changes from a command prompt unfortunately. Follow the directions under "elevated command line" in the original post. That will get you there.

Running Problem

Really Effin Mad — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:20:23 GMT

All of these solutions to regain control of one's formerly XP external hard drive involve changing securities and ownerships. While these instructions are all fairly easy to follow, and I imagine work very well normally... THERE IS NO EFFIN SECURITY TAB ... I right click a file, folder, anything in the external hard drive. ANYTHING mind, go to properties like they say... and here is where they say click the security tab. There is no such thing as the security tab. It is missing, absent, vacant, non existent. Yes I am the administrator, yes I am logged on as the admin seeing as how there's only the one account, mine, admin... Ive changed all securities i can find anywhere on the computer to allow full access to just about anyone, but it still wont let me do anything but read files on my external hard drive.

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

The anti MVP — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:00:44 GMT

Open command prompt

Run diskpart

select volume D (substitute your drive letter)

attributes volume clear readonly

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Richard — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:11:22 GMT

You are a champion - this has allowed me to regain control of a 931GB file that I was unable to access after reinstalling Vista x64 (had 2008 Server x64 before that).

I was really stumped - I have several such files each on a drive and all but this one worked fine after rolling back to Vista. After following your steps above about altrering user access it now works fine.

Thanks!

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

manuel m — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:56:50 GMT

it says that "a problem caused the proram to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available".

when i try to command prompt

icacls f:\ /grant BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)(M)

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?????

thanks

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

cuartzFSU — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:50:35 GMT

I just build my new PC on 11/12/08 and my external drive started having the same issue. It was set to read only. I had disabled UAC since I find it extremely annoying and it interferes with RealVNC. I found this site and hoped it would solve my problems. While the instructions didn't directly solve my problems they did get me one step closer.

What I found out was after enabling UAC and restarting I opened up command prompt using "Run as Administrator" and entered in the line from method to, replacing "d:\" with the proper drive letter of my external. The command ultimately said "failed" but I figured, continue on anyways. Next, I unplugged the power cord from my WD external drive for about 10-15 seconds and then plugged it back in. Magically, i was able to modify files and allw as well.. until i had to unplug everything to install a new component in my pc.

The next day, same issue. Tried the exact same method again and after plugging in the power cord to my external it DIDN'T help at all. I managed to get it working but I ended up unplugging the power cord once more, restarting, then plugging the cord back in and it worked again. The question is, for how long? I added my username to the permissions and granted full control (the only other entry was "everyone"). I'm going to monitor everything for the next few days and see how things progress.

If anyone is stuck, try unplugging the power in the same manner I did, it may just work (temporarily).

re: Help: I assigned user privilldges to Guest account and deleted it by mistake, on my laptop. vista home premium, now i can not instal programs or uninstall because access is denied, what do i do

kipkemboi llele — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:08:30 GMT

I need to disable the UAC user priviledges assigne to Guest, that has disappeared from the screen. I think I may have deleted it by mistake, someone help. I can not even reinstall vista though I have the restoration disks, the thing denies access

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Annoyed — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:12:26 GMT

My Vista wont allow me too edit my security as i have done option 1 but clicking ok says that it cant change the security on anything it says it has failed to apply security modify to anything!!! so it does absoulutely nothing! help

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Jeremy Gagliardi — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:07:18 GMT

Windows Vista Home Premium

When a file is created by a user with no modify permission for others and that user is then deleted, how can another user take ownership to modify or just delete the file?

In Vista (at least in the Home Premium copy that I have), you cannot rely on Explorer to just know

what to do, you cannot rely on the fact that your present user account is a member of the infamous

Administrators group, and you cannot even rely on executing Windows Explorer with "Run as

administrator" privileges.

The problem is most likely that the Administrators (or any other) group was not granted any rights to

the file, or at least was not granted the modify right, and Windows blissfully goes about its

business denying anyone but the owner the ability to modify the file. Unfortunately, you already

deleted that user account, and you can't get it back.

Solution?

- Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Windows Explorer

- Right-click on the file.

- Click on the "Security" tab.

- In the "Group or user names" box, observe the following:

- Your user account is not listed or does not have modify rights.

- The Administrators group and other groups that you are a member of are not listed or do not have

modify rights.

- You see "Account unknown(x-x-x-xx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxx)"

...where the "x"s are the former account's user id code, which is no longer valid.

- Click the "Advanced" button.

- Click the "Owner" tab.

- Under "Current owner" you should see "Account unknown(x-x-x-xx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-

xxxx)".

- Under "Change owner to" you should see (at least):

Administrators (<HOSTNAME>\Administrators)

<USERNAME> (<HOSTNAME>\<USERNAME>)

...where <HOSTNAME> is the Host Name of the PC and <USERNAME> is your user account name.

- Click the "Edit" button.

- Highlight the "<USERNAME> (<HOSTNAME>\<USERNAME>)" entry.

- Click the "OK" button.

- You should see a dialog box popup that reads as follows:

If you have just taken ownership of this object, you will need to close

and reopen this object's properties before you can view or change

permissions.

- Click its "OK" button.

- Click "OK".

You now have ownership of the file.

However, if you go back into the "Security" tab, you still won't see your account listed in the

"Group or user names" box. If you want to change additional permissions, you can do the following:

- Right-click on the file.

- Click on the "Security" tab.

- Click the "Edit" button.

- Click the "Add" button.

- Enter your user name and press <Enter>.

- Highlight your user name in the list.

- In the "Permissions for <USERNAME>" box, click on the Allow or Deny boxes as needed.

- Click "OK".

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Constantine — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:35:50 GMT

I followed it but it still would not work because the whole drive is write protected, even in safe mode on admin, I could not change the security properties of it AT ALL.

CMD Step seemed to do something but it did not help me in accessing it.

When I plugged in my pocket usb drive, for some reason, I was able to access and modify my files again in the Big Ext HD.

So what I did is when I got the access, I deleted ALL of the Objects (Groups and User Names) in the list. I then proceeded to just add my User Name, System, Administrator, and Administrators in the list.

I gave it all full access and I haven't had a problem since.

It seems that because the non-existent user name (the one with random numbers) had ownership of the drive, and CREATOR OWNER and the non-existent user name had no rights or roles whatsoever in the security list. It did not allow me to access the files at all even though I was logged in as ADMIN and in Safe Mode and Admin had complete rights to the drive but NO ownership. I have no idea why it was contradicting itself and why these were the settings on the drive as I have never touched it.

So if you ever access again to the HD, I suggest doing this first for the HD Security before it Magically goes away again. I hope it works for everyone.

I was 2 minutes away from reformatting 500GB of files because it was pissing me off, good thing I decided to plug my little HD in and saved my day. =)

Good Luck to whoever has this problem. I don't think MS has ANY clue that this problem is happening to people. I certainly do think that this is an OS issue.

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Freddy — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:29:33 GMT

Hi, I think i had a similar problem. This evening i suddenly couldn't delete files or folders from my external harddrive (even though i have been running Vista for many months now without any problems). I could creat new files, but not rename them. After searching on the internet i ended up here, but didn't try the trick posted here. Instead i opened up windows explorer. I did a right click on the drive which is my external hardrive and chose 'rename' to rename the drive. I didn't rename but just pressed ENTER. Then i got a popup (access denied) window telling me that i need administrator priviliges to change the name of the drive. I clicked on 'continue' and after that i was able to delete and rename files and folders on my drive again. Hope this works for you as well.

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

jesper — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:24:24 GMT

Constantine, the unknown account you are seeing is from the old computer that you used to use this drive with. It is unknown because it does not exist on the new computer.

You should be able to follow the directions in the post to grant yourself access again. When you go to the Security tab it should ask you to grant yourself permission.

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Constantine — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:14:42 GMT

Any updates on this?

I have an Unknown account on my list and the hard drive's owner is the Unknown Account so i completely have no privilege. Both the Unknown Account and Creator has no privileges

Even in Safe Mode and in Administrator's account I cannot change the Security settings even though it clearly says that Administrator and Sytem has Full Control of the Ext HD. It is connected to USB and it won't fix itself even if I turn it off, unplug it, or restart the computer.

HELP PLEASE!

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

Alex — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:36:45 GMT

I tried going through the steps, but when I go to "apply" my new security settings, it says "access is denied" to all the files on my external hard drive.

I can open them but I can't copy to my laptop, which I need to do. Help would be great...!

re: Help: Vista won't let me write to my external hard drive

John — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:03:54 GMT

I actually seem to have a more fundamental proble. I can map my external hard drive (formatted under XP) and see the first level of folders within it. However, I cannot actually open these folders. No error message comes up or anything, it just spends ages thinking about it, then explorer stops responding and I have to restart. This also happens when I try to have a look at the properties. Is this a similar problem to the others quoted on this page or am I really being a dumbass. By the way, its a wirelessly connected. A direct LAN connection does not seem to help