Windows 10: Windows 10 update causing D drive error Location not available access denied

I am using Windows 10 LTSB. Just applied a update 2021-11 cumulative and servicing stack from April 2021 from WSUS to all machines in deployment. Result is horrible.Apart from C drive all drives are giving an error Location not available and Access is denied. Also cannot access external connected storage.Luckily the cumulative updates can be rolled back. However, if someone can tell me what was the problem here and how to avoid it. Also I found that logging through administrator account I can access all the drives but this is not the solution I am looking into.

:)

 

Access Denied to Drive

After upgrading from Windows 7 I cannot access drive D: it is there and shows up in device manager Microsoft FSX is on the disk and will run via another program but I cannot access the drive and get an error message " Location is not available" D:\ is
not accessible Access Denied.

 

Local Drive D is showing "access denied"

I have a Lenovo 100S-14IBR-80R9. It came with 32 GB of SSD. However, recently I started getting message that I need to update Windows 10 and that my OS will not work after 10th Apr 2018. When I tried updating, it gave me a message that I needed 8 GB space
- there was no way that I could find 8 GB in a drive which had only 500 MB left. As such, I took following steps:

• I added a 250 GB SATA SSD but the added space was useless to this purpose since it needed space in C drive and so the system continued asking me to clean up space so I could free up 8 GB in C drive for the update.
  
• Recovering 8 GB in C drive was impossible so I re-installed Windows by media creation tool and after the installation, 250 GB drive has been designated C drive and the original 32 GB drive was no longer visible in windows explorer though in disk management,
  it shows up but all options for 32 GB partition are grayed out.
• As such, I installed mini partition wizard and assigned a label D to original 32 GB drive. Now it became visible in Windows explorer with D label but when I click on this D drive, I get "access denied".
• I reformatted this drive as both FAT32 and NTFS to no avail.
• Tried Windows 10 troubleshooter for Hard Drive and Shared folders to no avail.
• Adjusted User Access Control to no avail.
• I adjusted the security settings of D drive to no avail.
• I have used diskpart to set id=07 but keeps saying location not available.

So, before almost giving up and re-installing my windows all over again, here is my last attempt to find any potential approach that I might have missed.

 

Location is not Available Access denied windows 10

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They are meant to protect your files. But still, being prevented from copying, deleting, modifying, or anything else you want to do with a file or folder because of inadequate permissions is no fun.

This unenviable state of affairs usually comes with the ‘location is not available‘ error. In this case ‘Access is denied’ is displayed as part of the error message. There are other variations of the error.

Curiously, in many of the cases where users have been confronted with this error, they had recently upgraded from an
older to a newer version of Windows. This suggests there is a bug that prevents all your user permissions from migrating to new Windows installs.

How do I fix the ‘Location is unavailable’ error in Windows

Basically, every time you try to access an affected drive or folder, you are met with the same ‘location is unavailable, access is denied’ error message. You will literally be locked
out of your own computer. We have a couple of quick fixes that will reset your administrator and user permissions and resolve this issue. Read on.

1. Use the Command Prompt to reset your user permissions

2. Manually reset the permissions for all blocked drives

3. How to prevent the ‘location is not available’ error

Solution 1 – Use the Command Prompt to reset your user permissions

To open the Command Prompt, press the Windows and X keys together. Depending
on your Windows version, a pop-up list will appear on the left side of your screen. Click on the Command Prompt (Admin) option. Grant the necessary permission for the prompt to make changes on your computer.

Before you start, remember to disable sharing if your PC is part of a network. Now, you
will need to identify the specific folders for which the ‘location is not available’ error is showing. Let’s suppose it is the Documents folder. Follow the following steps;

1. In the command prompt, type cd/users and hit enter. C:\users, in this case, is the directory where the affected file is stored. Find out what that
is for you.

2. Type in cd/ username. Replace username with the username you use on the PC,

3. Now paste this string, icacls Documents/reset/t/q. You will get this – C:Users>Your Username>icacls Documents/reset/t/q. Press enter,

4. Your permissions for that folder should now be fully reset.

5. Repeat the process for all the folders you can’t access because of the error.

Solution 2 – Manually reset the permissions for all blocked drives

The above solution is a shortcut that will save you time. But if you somehow can’t get the reset done through the Command Prompt, this one is an alternative, albeit one that takes longer. But it will get the job done all the same.

Locate the drive or folder for which you can’t get access. Right click on it and choose the Properties option. Then follow the steps;

1) Go down to the Security folder. After you click on it this screen will

2) Click the Edit button to manually enable the user and administrator permissions. You will get

3) Check the boxes under Allow. Normally, after you check the first, Full Control box, all boxes will be checked automatically. Note, if the Allow box is greyed out, first check the Deny box.
The Allow box will instantly be opened for checking. Check the boxes you need to and then uncheck the Deny box you had unchecked.

4) Click the OK button, followed by the Apply button,

5)The initial Properties (Security) window should still be open. Open it if you had closed

6) Still in that Security window referred to above, click on

7) Then click the Edit button,

8) Now, here you will need to decide what permissions you will give to other people who use the computer. As the administrator, you will have Full Control. It may however not be safe to give every other user the same Full Control.
In my case, I only checked the Allow button for the Read & Execute List Folder Contents, and Read permissions. Decide what is best for you and check the respective

Solution 3 – How to prevent the ‘location is not available’ error

It is not enough to fix the error without investigating its causes. That way you will learn how to prevent the error from happening again.

Avoiding doing the things that cause the error in the first place should be enough to prevent them from happening again. Granted, some of these causes may be beyond your control.

Some of the things you should look to avoid doing include;

• Improperly shutting down your computer – Always close all programs and follow the standard Windows shutdown procedure before you plug the PC from its power source,
• The above also applies to your external storage devices – Avoid pulling them out from the USB
  socket before the computer is done with whatever you were doing on the portable device. Even then, always close the drive first before you remove the device from the computer.
• Recklessly exposing your PC to virus and malware infection – Make sure you have an up-to-date anti-virus running
  on your PC at all times,
• Failing to properly care for your external hard drives and other portable drives – Run a drive repair and data recovery tool if
  you suspect physical damage to your external hard drive,
• Tinkering with your file systems – Avoid playing around with your file systems and registry settings if you don’t have the requisite skills.

There are several other situations where the ‘location is not available’ error message may be worded slightly different. These include:

• ‘Location is not available – parameters are incorrect‘
• Location is not available – desktop blank and apps deleted’ and,
• ‘Location is not available -‘CRC error’
• ‘Location is not available – the volume does not contain a recognized file system’

Some of these may have their own fixes. But there are also specialist software tools you can also use to fix some of
the errors. A quick web search should turn up enough options. The MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a good one. The tool can even help you recover
data from a damaged drive partition.

The fixes we have discussed here should help with the ‘location is not available – access is denied’ error. This error is expressly a result of missing or corrupted administrator and user permissions.

Speaking of corrupted files, remember to scan your computer of viruses and malware if you notice this error occurring repeatedly or the computer itself behaving strangely. I am a software engineer at
caliber enterprises and this will help you to solve your problem.