External Hard drive - Access Denied

I am suddenly not able to access my external western digital hard drive that I have been storing my images on.

It does light up when i plug it but I am not able to access the drive and the images . I have tried using it on differently laptops without success. Is there any way to recover the image even

If the drive is damaged . Thanks .

<p>Anis, a couple of questions: Is this an eSATA drive, or USB? Also, are you getting an error message, or just no response from the drive?</p>

<p>Put your ear close to it - can you hear it spinning ? If not then I'm afraid it's probably done for. If you can then it's worth trying out some recovery software (I'm assuming that you're not able to read anything from the drive - if you really are getting the 'access denied' message then it sounds like your security settings have been upset somehow)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Put your ear close to it - can you hear it spinning ? If not then I'm afraid it's probably done for.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This is really the right advice, but if you cannot hear it spinning, things might still be OK.... If this is the case, take out the drive from the enclosure, and try the drive in a desktop (assuming it is a regular SATA hard disk), and see if you can access it that way. It can be either the hard disk enclosure or the hard disk itself.</p>

<p>Although this is a weird fix, I've heard that if the platters are stuck and you place the HD on a hard smooth surface and give it a few vigorous spins they might loosen up. As a last resort this might worth a try.</p>

<p>^ Quite a few years back when booting my office computer nothing happened. The tech support person suggested to rock the case back-and-forth a few times and retry. I did this, and it worked!</p>

<p>Bottom line, the hard drive read/write arm <em>might</em> be hung up, and a jar <em>might</em> do the trick. But:</p>

<p>Do learn from this. If you have something you can't afford to lose, use a storage strategy that involves redundancy. A single hard drive <em>will</em> fail, eventually.</p>

<p>Deleted double post (server timed-out, thought it hadn't happened)</p>

<p>[[i am suddenly not able to access my external western digital hard drive that I have been storing my images on. It does light up when i plug it but I am not able to access the drive and the images]]</p>

<p>Where are you seeing this error message? </p>

 

<p>USB powered or self powered? I ask, because I had something similar with a USB powered drive. Turns out I just needed to use a different cable than the one I had been using for years...</p>

<p>If it is an external drive, it could be the enclosure the drive is in, OR it could be the drive. Because the computer knows something is out there, but can't access it, I would lean toward the drive not working and the enclosure still working. I hope I am wrong. For any recovery software to work, you need the drive to be able to power up and spin. Unless you take it out and listen carefully, it may be hard to tell if this is happening.</p>

<p>What OS is your computer ? Windows 7 could have gotten it's security settings tweaked as well. </p>

<p>p.s. Make sure the ext drive didn't get it's power cord unplugged. </p>

Thanks for all the responses . I gather this problem is not uncommon.

It is not a USB based HD so I guess it makes it SATA.

I did listen to it and it does give out a spinning sound .

The error messages reads ...Q:\ is not accessible ..Access is denied.

I am using windows 7 .

I tried shaking it a bit but it didn't work .

What would be the best way to recover the images .

<p>If it does give a spinning sound, there is a very good chance the drive is OK still. But if it is not USB-based, you will have to give a bit more info:</p>

<ul>

<li>How is this drive connected to your PC; that means: on your PC, what kind of port do you connect it to?</li>

<li>Do you know how this drive is powered? For example, do you need an AC adapter for it?</li>

<li>Did you try replacing the cable that connects the external drive to your PC</li>

</ul>

<p>Else, it is hard to help you further. My advice now, since you do hear the spinning sound, is to treat the drive gently first and foremost, to avoid damaging it.</p>

I am sorry about my previous response . The drive is powered by an adapter and connected via USB port. I will try

replacing the adapter and USB cable and See if it makes any difference . Thanks.

<p>Anis, this is looking more like a permissions problem than a physical disk problem. Try this: Go to Start>Computer, right click on the Q drive, then go to Properties>Security. You'll see two panels. The top one lists everyone who has access to the drive, the bottom one lists the degree of control they have. You should be listed in the top panel, and the bottom one should grant full control.</p>

<p>Have you recently acquired a new computer, or upgraded your existing machine to Windows 7? Or, was the drive configured on a different computer? Any of those things may have caused the problem...</p>

<p>Thanks William, i did what you said , however it didnt work.<br>

First it said, unable to change owner<br>

Then it said , unable to set new owner to local disk Q , access denied...<br>

What am i doing wrong ?</p>

<p>Have you tried to use the drive on a different computer, to see if you get the same result?</p>

<p>Also, can you try using a different external drive on your computer, to see if you get the same result?</p>

Yes , I have attempt both William , with the same results . The other drives seem to be functioning alright.

<p>My apologies, you did mention that in your original post. The only thing I can think of at this point is that you should take the drive and the laptop you normally use it with to a computer repair place. They may be able to resolve the problem, or at least recover the images from the drive.</p>

<p>Good luck, and please let us know the outcome?</p>

<p>Regards,</p>

<p>William</p>

<p>Thanks William , will keep you posted . Regards - Anis.</p>

<p>Have you done a cold reboot of the Hard drive< what I am saying is this unplug the H/D then shut the computer off<br>

, also find the reset button on the H/D reset it and then plug back into the computer and now do the restart : Good luck</p>

<p>a bit late to the thread here, but i bet you can get to it via Linux, or better, Ubuntu. Download the live Ubuntu disk, learn how to burn the iso image, learn how to change your boot priority, boot up the ubuntu live disc and there's a very good chance you'll see your drive, mount the drive, and get to your files.</p>