Windows 7 External HD denied access

rcc

New Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2011
First time poster:

I installed a Seagate 1TB drive in a usb drive enclosure using Windows 7, and I am denied access when I try to save anything on it or change permissions.

The drive shows up in my drive manager. It even let me initialize it, reset the drive letter, and format as NTFS (apparently). I tried changing security settings but it locks me out. When I try to give full access to users, I get an error (something about circularity maybe?). Subsequent attempts to change setting produced a prompt that the drive needed to be formatted, so I clicked okay and two seconds later it tells me it cannot format the disk because it cannot access it.

Take ownership has not worked either.

Any advice?

Thanks
 
Sounds like there may either be a problem with the drive or else perhaps with the Enclosure's crossover electronics. You may try using chkdsk with the forward slash "R" switch to let windows 7 have a look. If the drive checks fine then I would suspect a problem with either the USB cable, USB port (either end) or the enclousure electronics. Can you remove the drive from the enclosure and test with a direct SATA or IDE connection first to help eliminate the enclosure during the initial diagnostic check with chkdsk?
 
Thanks Trouble.

I have not tried attaching the drive directly to the board. I was hoping to avoid that, but if it comes to that I can do it. It's strange that it will go so far as to initialize and rename drive path, though. It can show me all the relevant specs on properties and I can even create folders on it. I just can't save anything on it. Would an issue with the enclosure itself still allow these things?

I've come over to Windows 7-64 from Ubuntu. My last Windows OS was XP and it didn't have all the file security. Am I just missing something with permissions?

Willing to try some further diagnostics.

Thanks again
 
The drive was given to me in an open box, but to my knowledge had never been used and is in very new condition. I don't necessarily suspect drive damage and I would think there'd be any security on it.

Just in case, I wiped the drive (one pass 0s) and it didn't improve. Could it be password protected onboard?

Thanks
 
SOLVED: Problem was with the Hard Drive. I think the drive is irreparably damaged. I tried the enclosure using my Mac and it could not verify, repair, or format the disk. So I put in another 100 Gig. drive and the Mac formatted it and I'm up an running on both the Mac and Windows 7. Thanks for your input.
 
I was kind of affraid of that. Thanks for the follow-up and updating your thread with you findings.
Thanks for joining the forums and we hope to continue to see you around.
Best Wishes
Randy
 
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