cannot access my external drive

bluedoo · 12 Jul 2008 at 14:55

as the title says
if i try to open the drive it comes up
F:\ is not accessible
access denied

i am using vista 64 premium
and the drive is a WD my book 500GB

i have tried changing the security setting but nothing changes

any suggestions please

bluedoo · 12 Jul 2008 at 16:15

anyone?

if i open up my computer it shows my internal drive ok
it shows total capacity and free capacity
on the external drive
it has 0 for capacity and free

if i go into disk management it shows the capacity and free space ok
and says the drive is healthy
if i try to explore or open from here iget the same result
F:\ is not accessible
access denied

helmutcheese · 12 Jul 2008 at 17:18

I got a few ideas but try in SAFE Mode 1st.

Is this HDD USB2..0 only or does it also have ESATA like my model ?.

bluedoo · 12 Jul 2008 at 21:12

it is USB 2.0

i will try safe mode and see what happens

bluedoo · 12 Jul 2008 at 21:52

helmutcheese said:
I got a few ideas but try in SAFE Mode 1st.

Is this HDD USB2..0 only or does it also have ESATA like my model ?.

i have just tried it in safe mode and i can see and open the drive no problems

what do you suggest next?

thanks

helmutcheese · 12 Jul 2008 at 22:51

I would need to think about it but knew it would work in Safe Mode, something must have it locked or a permission.

bluedoo · 13 Jul 2008 at 14:06

i have tried changing the permissions and owner and still the same

beano · 14 Jul 2008 at 17:49

HDD Sticking/locking up

I'm having a week of computer nightmares lol! My harddrive on my old back-up pc has locked up. It starts to boot, gets onto the desktop, then freezes. I'm guessing the HDD is sticking at the same point everytime.

Am i right in thinking that there is no way to retrieve any of the files from this drive? Just thought i'd ask on the off-chance.

helmutcheese · 14 Jul 2008 at 17:57

Bang it with your hand very hard and try the Freezer if that fails, then recover it with File Scavenger.

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

beano · 14 Jul 2008 at 18:08

helmutcheese said:
Bang it with your hand very hard and try the Freezer if that fails, then recover it with File Scavenger.

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

hehe! Thanks helmutcheese. ;

I think it was the banging it with my foot that messed it up in the first place lol! How do you avoid condensation when doing the freezer thing!?!

Sorry to the OP too, i've no idea how this ended up in your thread!?!?!

beano · 14 Jul 2008 at 18:10

Sorry double post!?! Either i'm going nuts, or this forum is lol!

philjohn · 14 Jul 2008 at 18:24

beano said:
How do you avoid condensation when doing the freezer thing!?!

Use an airtight zip-lok bag and bung a heap of silica gel sachets in there. Failing that, some uncooked risotto rice should do the trick (very absorbant).

beano · 14 Jul 2008 at 18:38

philjohn said:
Use an airtight zip-lok bag and bung a heap of silica gel sachets in there. Failing that, some uncooked risotto rice should do the trick (very absorbant).

Ah! Nice, cheers.

bluedoo · 14 Jul 2008 at 22:30

ok all is well now
had to add a user in the security settings

i would have thought it would have worked ok as i log in as administator

beano · 15 Jul 2008 at 00:03

Vista's a bit of a dog like that. It's why i ended up turning that off (can't remember what it was called now, and i'm running XP on this machine hehe!)