HDD help.

[darklin0]

About 2 weeks ago we had a black out and my external hard drive stopped working properly. I don't know what is wrong with it, whenever I connect it it prompts me to open up the hard drive but if I try a little window (1) pops up telling me access denied. If I right click on the drive it says it has 0kb of 0kb used (2). I do have windows 7 installed on it and going to disk management it lists the drive with 238gb and 14% free space. I tried a few things but none of them worked but I am still open to any suggestions even if I tried it once.

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[Inner]

My question is do you need to rescue the data on your external drive? If you really don't then formatting it would probably make it all better. Empty, but working.

If you need to rescue the data, that's a different story.

[darklin0]

I would go to it as my very last resort. There are a few things I still need that are in there but nothing irreplaceable.

[One_Medic_Army]

If possible, you could try removing the drive from the enclosure, just to make sure it's an issue on the drive and not the enclosure's board.
If it's not making any noises, and the problem is not on the enclosure's board, then it might be an issue with the volume header or such. There are programs you can use to analyze/fix drives that are damaged in this manner, but I do not know them offhand.

[Inner]

I've had a similar experience before and strangely it came down to no longer having "rights" to the hdd. This may not be your case but you could check:

Go to "computer" on the start menu.
When the window pops up, right click on the external drive, click on properties
Go to the 'security' tab. Are Administrators listed as having access to all functions? Are you logged on as Administrator?

[darklin0]

If possible, you could try removing the drive from the enclosure, just to make sure it's an issue on the drive and not the enclosure's board.
If it's not making any noises, and the problem is not on the enclosure's board, then it might be an issue with the volume header or such. There are programs you can use to analyze/fix drives that are damaged in this manner, but I do not know them offhand.

It looks like it is running fine when I connect it to the PC again. No strange noises or anything of the sort.

I've had a similar experience before and strangely it came down to no longer having "rights" to the hdd. This may not be your case but you could check:

Go to "computer" on the start menu.
When the window pops up, right click on the external drive, click on properties
Go to the 'security' tab. Are Administrators listed as having access to all functions? Are you logged on as Administrator?

I think that is the problem. It tells me to choose a new owner but it gives me an access denied still, and I am Administrator.

[Inner]

Okay then, let's go down the path of giving yourself access rights

From the "computer" window, right click on the hdd, select properties, security, advanced, and "change permissions" for administrators to full control.

See if that makes a difference.

[darklin0]

I am still getting the same access denied message.

[Inner]

Hmmmm. I'm stumped for the moment.

While I think about it, perhaps you can solve it...in "Help" checkout stuff to do with "access control" that's our topic.

Good luck!

[Oni]

I'm with Inner this is probably some kind of funky permissions issue.

Have you tried taking ownership of the HDD? You should have all the rights you need if you do that. If you can take ownership and it still doesn't work, then try to applying the permissions and see if you still hit the same road block.

It's under Security > Advanced > Owner, you need to be logged in as a Admin.

[darklin0]

It is late for me now but I will try that tomorrow. Basically all my google searches ended up like this.

[Inner]

I am still getting the same access denied message.

This is weird.

You posted some good screenshots before. Could you post a screenshot of the advanced security settings for your HDD?

(From the "computer" window, right click on the hdd, select properties, security, advanced....That window)

Thanks.

[bullet4o1]

Throw it in a ziptop bag and then in the freezer for 20 minutes. Plug it back in and see if it displays anything.

[darklin0]

So I managed to fix it.

It turns out all the boot up files and stuff were corrupted (or something) and they were preventing the disk from running normally. I just popped in my System Repair Disc, clicked on repair PC and after a few minutes my PC restarted and booted up normally. Everything is intact and working fine, thanks for the help guys my problem is solved.

[Flash]

Throw it in a ziptop bag and then in the freezer for 20 minutes. Plug it back in and see if it displays anything.

This only sometimes works for physically damaged drives with a crashed head. No need to go to that extreme unless you're sure that is the problem.

Glad to hear everything worked out darklin0!