Windows 10: All external storage USB, HDD suddenly becomes readonly, cannot delete files, need...

I had two external HDD, one is a Toshiba 4TB with bitlocker and the other is a WD 4TB without bitlocker. I used to be able to freely write files to either HDD and delete files with no problems. However as of last week, I suddenly get a permission issue. I could not delete file from both HDD. I did not change anything on my laptop. Both HDD have no issues. Out of the blue ALL my folders on both external HDDs became readonly. For the bitlocker HDD I have unlocked it using the password and it shows the same problem as the non-bitlocker HDD. I did not change password, I am the current user

:)

 

External HDD/USB.

Hello.

I have an external HDD docking station connected to my PC thru USB.

Devine manager sees it. But Windows explorer does not.

Suggestions?

 

Quirky behaviour with external HDD

Since you have already checked Device Manager and did not see any errors, we suggest that you manually uninstall the device drivers for your external drives. Doing this will allow the system to install the driver for your external drive automatically and
correct any error. You can follow the steps below to uninstall the device driver:

• Search for Device Manager via Cortana and hit the
  Enter key.
• Go to View, and click Show hidden icons.
• On the Device Manager, check under Universal Serial Bus Controllers (if the drive is connected via USB). The drive should appear as a USB Mass Storage Device.
• Uninstall the USB Mass Storage Device listed in the Device Manager.
• Restart your PC.
• After restarting, allow the default USB Mass Storage Device drivers to be automatically downloaded by windows. Make sure that you are connected to the internet for this process to push through.
• Reinstall all other drivers from the support website of your External drive.

We look forward to your response after completing the steps.

 

External HDD visable but suddenly gone unreadable

Continuing .....

Note: The disk I am using for the screenshots is 750GB. Your source disk should show as 3000GB with sector size = 512 which we will be changing to 4096.

On the fifth screen you posted















If your only partition is shown and you get " Structure OK, blah ...blah....", highlight that partition and press P (Shift+ P ) (Capital P) to list the files. Post a screenshot.

If your files are listed, you can select those and copy to your 2TB Destination disk into the Recovery folder . If that drive letter is say I: then your destination to copy the files will be Directory I: \ Recovery ( Replace I with the actual drive letter of your 2TB Destination drive you noted in the second screen)

How to copy files listed by TestDisk:

Please read my post #28 here https://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...ml#post2395385
(Note:Screenshot 5 onwards where the files are listed applies here. Ignore the first four screenshots in that post.)

At any point during the recovery process, if you have any doubts, post a screenshot and ask for clarification.