Windows 10: Is there a way to access my lost hard drive without using it

A while ago I lost my hard drive and was unable to find it and recently my hard disk was cleaned by accident and I was unable to use my hard drive to restore my lost data.

:)

 

Location is not available F:/ is not accessible. Access is denied. External hard drive

Hi,

Most of the time, when your external hard drive shows that error message, it suggests that you don’t have the privilege of accessing to the disk partition. We need to get a permit to take ownership of the drive. Follow the steps below:

• Open File Explorer.
  
• Right-click your hard drive, then select Properties.
  
• Go to Security tab.
  
• Click Advanced, then select Edit.
  
• On the Owner tab, modify the ownership of the specified account.
  
• Click Apply, then OK.
  

Update us with the outcome so we can provide further assistance.

 

Unable to access the external hard drive after upgrading to Windows 10

Hi Alan,

As you are facing issues with accessing the external hard drive after upgrading to Windows 10, do not worry we will help you with this issue.

Do provide us additional information to assist you better with this issue:

• What is the make and model of your devices?
• What exactly happens when you try to access the drive?
• What is the complete error message/ error code of this issue?
• Were you able to detect the device under Device Manager/ File Explorer?

Step 1: As a workaround, I suggest you to do the following to detect the issue:

• Connect the hard drive to different port and check if the issue persists.
• Connect different hard drive to the same port and check.
• Connect different hard drives to different ports and check.

Step 2: If the device is not detected on your computer try to run
Hardware and Devices troubleshooter as it checks for common problems and makes sure that any new device or hardware connected to your PC is installed correctly.

• Press Windows key from the keyboard, type
  Troubleshooting and select it.
• Click on view all option on the upper left corner of
  Troubleshooting window.
• Select the Hardware and Device
  options from the list.
• Click Next to run the Hardware and Device
  Troubleshooter

Step 3: I suggest you to check if there are any drivers with yellow exclamatory mark in the Device Manager.

• Press Windows + X from the keyboard, click on
  Device Manager.
• Right click on the detected driver, click on Properties
  and check the device status.
  

Hope it helps. Try the above and update us the status of this issue with the required information, we will be happy to help you further.

Thank you.

 

Lost data from hard drive, what to do now?

Well, I'm sorry to hear that it's a WD My Passport that failed on you, @tomhenry ! *Frown
I'd recommend you to try using a different USB cable with it and see if that will help your system to detect it without it disconnecting.
I'd also suggest you to go to Disk Management and see how the drive is listed there. It won't hurt to check up on the health and SMART status of the HDD by running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Here's a link to the available software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=11ZOpD

Give these troubleshooting steps a try and keep us posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD