[home777]

Hi all,

I have a problem with an external drive and am hoping some of you might know how to fix this 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.” Over time, this has happened with more folders. 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 a few days ago, and it did not recreate the files. How can I regain access to these folders?

Any ideas are welcomed. Thanks in advance!

Russ

 

[grimx133]

Sounds like you need to take ownership of the folders. There is an MS kb on that which will help, if that's the prob. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[home777]

Thanks so much for your help! I did the following and am 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

 

[grimx133]

Couple of things to check. In the properties under the security tab, is full control the only thing checked? If so, check them all except for the special permissions, that's the stuff from the advanced button on that page.
And on the general tab, is there a button to unblock?

 

[home777]

Hi Grimx133,

Thanks for your help. In the Properties > Security tab, the Full control is checked, but Special Permissions is ghosted and not checked.

In the General tab, there are just two check boxes, Read-Only and Hidden. Read-Only has a green box in the middle, which I am presuming means that some but not all of the folders are Read-Only. When I uncheck this box and click Apply, the same symptoms occur; I can view file names and sizes, but not open the files.)

There's also an Advanced tab that has only one of the four options checked: "For fast searching, allow indexing service to index this folder." I have Windows Search.

Ideas? Thanks,

Russ

 

[home777]

Hey!! It's working! I was experimenting in a lower level folder just now and had to apply your suggestions to the top level folder (the drive letter and drive name).

Thank you so much!! This is great!!
Russ

 

[grimx133]

Excellent! Glad to hear it, permissions can sure be a pesky thing.