Solution external hard drive didn't shows up, external hard drive is read only
{1}
Try rebooting the computer without any USB devices attached. Then plug in the USB drive, right click on My Computer, select manage, and then click ?Disk Management.? If the drive is not present in the Disk Management window or if you are not able to access it, then the drive may have failed. In this window you should see all of your connected physical drives, their format, if they are healthy, and the drive letter.
Change the drive letter of the drive. Right-click on the drive in the list, and from the resulting menu select "Change Drive Letters and Paths"
Click on Change so you can change the drive letter. Click Change. Select a new drive letter from the drop down list, preferably the one that is not normally used for this drive.
Click Yes on the confirmation screen and you are done.
{2}
Write down all fixed Disk and CD/DVD drive letters so as not to delete them. DO NOT delete any of the fixed hard disk drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.
1. Login with Administrative privileges.
2. Disconnect all USB or FireWire storage devices.
3. Open Registry Editor by typing regedt32 in the Run box and navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
4. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices there will be registry keys with the name that resembles the format of \DosDevice\X: where X can be any alphabet letter which corresponding to your physical system drive letter.
5. Delete all possible USB drives, FireWire drives and external drives which have a drive letter.
DO NOT delete any of the fixed Hard Disk Drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.
Exclude \DosDevice\A: which normally reserved for floppy disk drives.
{3}
Click Start and in the Run box type in cmd and press Enter.
At the command prompt type in chkdsk U:/r 'the drive letter that you just added:' EG: U: and press enter.
If it finds any discrepancies it should fix them.
Tip: The cause of unpredictable behavior in a USB drive is often found to be the incorrect removal of a previously connected USB device. When removing USB devices right click on the ?Safely Remove Hardware? icon in the menu bar tray. This is usually found in the bottom right hand corner of the monitor. Once you have clicked on the icon, a menu with a single selection should appear. Click again on that selection to see the ?Safely Remove Hardware? window. Select the correct USB device and click the ?Stop.? When you receive the message that it is safe to remove the device, unplug the USB device from the computer.
Try rebooting the computer without any USB devices attached. Then plug in the USB drive, right click on My Computer, select manage, and then click ?Disk Management.? If the drive is not present in the Disk Management window or if you are not able to access it, then the drive may have failed. In this window you should see all of your connected physical drives, their format, if they are healthy, and the drive letter.
Change the drive letter of the drive. Right-click on the drive in the list, and from the resulting menu select "Change Drive Letters and Paths"
Click on Change so you can change the drive letter. Click Change. Select a new drive letter from the drop down list, preferably the one that is not normally used for this drive.
Click Yes on the confirmation screen and you are done.
{2}
Write down all fixed Disk and CD/DVD drive letters so as not to delete them. DO NOT delete any of the fixed hard disk drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.
1. Login with Administrative privileges.
2. Disconnect all USB or FireWire storage devices.
3. Open Registry Editor by typing regedt32 in the Run box and navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
4. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices there will be registry keys with the name that resembles the format of \DosDevice\X: where X can be any alphabet letter which corresponding to your physical system drive letter.
5. Delete all possible USB drives, FireWire drives and external drives which have a drive letter.
DO NOT delete any of the fixed Hard Disk Drives or CD/DVD optical drives registry values.
Exclude \DosDevice\A: which normally reserved for floppy disk drives.
{3}
Click Start and in the Run box type in cmd and press Enter.
At the command prompt type in chkdsk U:/r 'the drive letter that you just added:' EG: U: and press enter.
If it finds any discrepancies it should fix them.
Tip: The cause of unpredictable behavior in a USB drive is often found to be the incorrect removal of a previously connected USB device. When removing USB devices right click on the ?Safely Remove Hardware? icon in the menu bar tray. This is usually found in the bottom right hand corner of the monitor. Once you have clicked on the icon, a menu with a single selection should appear. Click again on that selection to see the ?Safely Remove Hardware? window. Select the correct USB device and click the ?Stop.? When you receive the message that it is safe to remove the device, unplug the USB device from the computer.
external hard drive is read only
Maybe you need to attrib it in the DOS mode... ??
If you can't do that, then here's something I found that might help, feeling a little lazy to key down all the ways myself so I'm going to just copy and paste....
"Here is what I know:
1. Under the Security Tab in Folder Properties The only group defined there is: “Everyone – Full Controlâ€
2. Under “Advanced Settings - "Owner “ - It shows some long number that starts with "S" , if I try to take ownership and turn it over to administrator, I get something to the effect of “Could not write permission changesâ€: Access Denied. I get that on all attempted changes, on the programs folder and all of its subfolders and files.
3. The programs folder spoken of above is in the root directory of a partition on one of my drives and is labeled E:/Programs - I normally install all my programs there, all except those that insist on being on C:\Programs, which so far is un-affected like E:/Programs.
4. Both the root above the programs folder (E: the parent) , and the Programs sub-folder itself did not have the usual access permissions
a. The Only security group defined was “EVERYONE†– Full Control
b. No “Administrators†Group
c. No “System†Group
d. No “Creator /Owner†Group
e. No "Users Group"
5. The Root (ESmile showed that the owner Was Administrator in Advanced Properties.
6. Under the security Tab for the root (ESmile I was able to add The ADMINISTRATOR, SYSTEM, AND USERS GROUP, saving the permissions for the root (ESmile was not a problem.
7. Changing permissions in the Root Directory of course had no effect on the (problem) programs folder, I could not even get it to inherit the permissions I successfully created in the root, because of course it could not save (write) the permissions to the ACL for that Folder ! ACCESS DENIED as usual!
Note: I noticed part of this thread mentioned Read Only Attributes that are set on the properties General Tab of Folders and Files, these have no bearing on being able to delete files and folders, using a file manager like Windows Explorer or My Computer !"
Or
"To remove the issue you will need to edit the windows registry file. This addition can be caused to a infection. First go to start menu and then click on run. Type regedit. In the registry editor windows go to file menu and click on export. Save the file to a desired location. This is because in case if there is any error you can restore the registry file back again. Then Navigate to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > StorageDevicePolicies. Now right click on writeprotect and then click on modify. Change the value to 0 and click on OK. Repeat the same for ControlSet001 and ControlSet002. Close it and restart your system."
Or
The lock can be opened and closed by single command in cmd. Insert your drive and give the chdir command to locate your hard drive. Then type sys: on to enable the write protection and sys: off to disable the write protection service. Also see your bios settings. Some bios have write protection settings. If it is enable then you have to disable it from there.
Or
First click on Start > Run... > regedit > OK
Highlight "Computer" and right-click. Select "Export" and save the backup somewhere safe. Just double-click it if you want to reset the changes you make.
Navigate to the following registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\StorageDevicePolicies
Click on StorageDevicePolicies and on the right-hand side there should be a DWORD value labelled "WriteProtect". If there isn't one, create it. Either way, make sure it has a value of 0. Double-click it to change it.
Do the same with the following two locations (creating any non-existent keys/values along the way):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control
Or
> go to control panel
>open administrative tools
>select and open computer management
>Under the "Storage" option you will find "Removable storage"
>Right click 'removable storage' and select properties
>You will find a security tab...add yourself and give full read, write & modify permissions..
save and exit. and then copy paste or make changes to the removable storage and it will work..
If you can't do that, then here's something I found that might help, feeling a little lazy to key down all the ways myself so I'm going to just copy and paste....
"Here is what I know:
1. Under the Security Tab in Folder Properties The only group defined there is: “Everyone – Full Controlâ€
2. Under “Advanced Settings - "Owner “ - It shows some long number that starts with "S" , if I try to take ownership and turn it over to administrator, I get something to the effect of “Could not write permission changesâ€: Access Denied. I get that on all attempted changes, on the programs folder and all of its subfolders and files.
3. The programs folder spoken of above is in the root directory of a partition on one of my drives and is labeled E:/Programs - I normally install all my programs there, all except those that insist on being on C:\Programs, which so far is un-affected like E:/Programs.
4. Both the root above the programs folder (E: the parent) , and the Programs sub-folder itself did not have the usual access permissions
a. The Only security group defined was “EVERYONE†– Full Control
b. No “Administrators†Group
c. No “System†Group
d. No “Creator /Owner†Group
e. No "Users Group"
5. The Root (ESmile showed that the owner Was Administrator in Advanced Properties.
6. Under the security Tab for the root (ESmile I was able to add The ADMINISTRATOR, SYSTEM, AND USERS GROUP, saving the permissions for the root (ESmile was not a problem.
7. Changing permissions in the Root Directory of course had no effect on the (problem) programs folder, I could not even get it to inherit the permissions I successfully created in the root, because of course it could not save (write) the permissions to the ACL for that Folder ! ACCESS DENIED as usual!
Note: I noticed part of this thread mentioned Read Only Attributes that are set on the properties General Tab of Folders and Files, these have no bearing on being able to delete files and folders, using a file manager like Windows Explorer or My Computer !"
Or
"To remove the issue you will need to edit the windows registry file. This addition can be caused to a infection. First go to start menu and then click on run. Type regedit. In the registry editor windows go to file menu and click on export. Save the file to a desired location. This is because in case if there is any error you can restore the registry file back again. Then Navigate to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > StorageDevicePolicies. Now right click on writeprotect and then click on modify. Change the value to 0 and click on OK. Repeat the same for ControlSet001 and ControlSet002. Close it and restart your system."
Or
The lock can be opened and closed by single command in cmd. Insert your drive and give the chdir command to locate your hard drive. Then type sys: on to enable the write protection and sys: off to disable the write protection service. Also see your bios settings. Some bios have write protection settings. If it is enable then you have to disable it from there.
Or
First click on Start > Run... > regedit > OK
Highlight "Computer" and right-click. Select "Export" and save the backup somewhere safe. Just double-click it if you want to reset the changes you make.
Navigate to the following registry location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\StorageDevicePolicies
Click on StorageDevicePolicies and on the right-hand side there should be a DWORD value labelled "WriteProtect". If there isn't one, create it. Either way, make sure it has a value of 0. Double-click it to change it.
Do the same with the following two locations (creating any non-existent keys/values along the way):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control
Or
> go to control panel
>open administrative tools
>select and open computer management
>Under the "Storage" option you will find "Removable storage"
>Right click 'removable storage' and select properties
>You will find a security tab...add yourself and give full read, write & modify permissions..
save and exit. and then copy paste or make changes to the removable storage and it will work..
