In this tutorial we will look at how to access files or folder when connecting an external hard drive from another computer or a stand alone hard drive. This can be a USB memory stick, memory card from your camera or an entire hard drive that you wish to access the data held within but are getting a permissions error or no files are showing, yet you know they are there.
Firstly, if you are wishing to connect a hard drive from another computer to your one, then there a couple of ways to do this. If this is a stand alone external hard disk with USB input, then simply plug it in to the back USB ports of your desktop and the device will show itself in My Computer. The reason for using the USB ports at the back is that they are connected directly to the motherboard and not via a separate USB card inside the desktop. If you are connecting it to your laptop, then any of the USB ports will do.
If the device you are attaching is a standard hard drive (IDE or SATA) then you can either connect it directly to your computer by opening the side up of your computer and should you have a spare SATA data cable and power adapter cable then just plug it in and reboot. If it is a IDE, then again make sure you have the IDE power cable and IDE data cable and set it to Slave. You will see how to set it to Slave on the back of the hard drive itself or consult the manufactures website. Please note that in my pictures of the IDE data cable, my motherboard connector is red. Most are actually blue in colour. The IDE power connector end should already be present in your desktop as it should be attached to the PSU (spare one)
A much simpler way to do this though, it to purchase a hard drive enclosure or a USB to SATA/IDE Adapter with a Power adapter which is what I use as it can connect 2.5″/ 3.5″ HDD’s be them IDE or SATA. It only cost me £17.99 ($29.00) and is an invaluable bit of kit. Here are some links should you wish to purchase any, but note that the links may change over time, but a simple look on Amazon or Newegg will find it for you:
- USB 2.0 To SATA/IDE Adapter with Power Lead (Good for all sizes and types)
- 2.5″ Hard drive enclosure (laptop size IDE hard drives)
- 2.5″ Hard drive enclosure (laptop size SATA hard drives)
- 3.5″ Hard Drive enclosure (Standard size internal hard drives)
Once you have connected your device, you will next need to Take Ownership of it. Please note that sometimes you may not have to do this and can access all files and folder with in. If you are unable to access certain files, you will get a permissions error or the files that you know are there seem to be hidden. There are two ways to get around this. Firstly if you try to access a certain folder/ file you might get the error message below:-
Now you can either click Continue and let Windows grant access to that particular folder which will give you access, but it might not grant access to all files and folders as well on the hard drive. So to do this we must change the ownership of the drive to yourself. Plug in or connect your drive and then locate it via My Computer. Right click on the drive and select Properties which will show the following window:
Now click on the Security tab and then on the Advanced button at the bottom:
Note: The Security Tab will not show if the HDD that you are trying to access is FAT or FAT32. It must be NTFS.
The Advanced Security Settings window for the drive in question will now show:
Now click on the Owner tab and click on Edit as shown in the image below:
Now depending on how many user accounts you have on your computer, you will now want to select the user that will be the new owner of the device. Check the ‘Replace owner on subcontainers and objects’ box and hit Apply. A Windows Security window will pop up, just click Yes.
Windows will now start the process of changing ownership of the files and folders on the drive:
Once the process has finished you will see the following message:
That’s it. You should now be able to see and access all of the files on the drive that you wish to save or use. In my case it belonged to a friend of mine, who’s motherboard had died, and needed personal files like family photos saved.
Note: This was done using Windows 7 Ultimate, but the procedure is very much the same in XP and Vista. If you have any questions, please ask below.
Got an error trying to open a folder (Documents and Settings) after performing the procedure described.
The error says “G:\Documents and Settings refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.”
Explorer does show the drive as G: drive.
Hi John Lee,
When you right click on the folder>Properties>Security, is everything ticked under ‘Allow’?
Also, are you running as admin?
When I do that, there is no “security” tab available. (Just General, Sharing, Web Sharing, Customize)
Are you running XP, Vista or Windows 7?
Is the folder on the HDD you are trying to access NTFS.
Check in Group Policy that it hasn’t been disabled. Windows Key+R and type ‘gpedit.msc’ (no quotes) and hit OK. On the left navigate to Windows Explorer settings via:
User Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Windows Explorer. Select Windows Explorer on the right to show the settings available on the right. Now scroll down (on the right) to ‘Remove Security tab’. Double click it to see the properties for it, and make sure that it is set to ‘Not Configured’. Hit Apply and OK.
You should note that the Security Tab will not be present on a HDD that has been formatted as FAT or FAT32. It must be NTFS.
Sorry I have been off line for a while.
Indeed the drive has Windows Vista on it and was working on it on a Windows XP machine.
I moved the drive to a Windows 7 machine and performed the operation.
Now, the “(H:)\Document and Settings” folder can be opened, but it looks like the content has been replaced by the stuff in “c:\Document and Settings” on my Windows 7 machine. Original content is no where to be found!!! How can I get them back?
Further testing shows that the “Document and Settings” folder on the external drive points to the folder of the same name on the c: drive.
This is what I did. I took another drive from a Windows 7 PC, plug it in as external drive using an adapter. (now I have 2 external drives). The “Document and Settings” folder on this 2nd external drive also points to the “Document and Settings” on theC: drive.
May be you can help me out with this? TIA.
After getting to the Advanced settings window, I click on the profile I wish to set as the owner and then a window pops up that says:
“Unable to set new owner on Microsoft Office Click-to-Run 2010 (Protected) (Q:).
Access is denied.”
Note: This is an external hard drive I got from a friend and it has been used on my laptop before but is not working now
Just had to deal with this while trying to copy files off a HDD pulled out of a dead laptop.
For me, changing the ‘owner’ of the folders didn’t help. It looked like Windows was going through and doing something useful, but I still didn’t have permission to access some of the folders, even though if I looked at the drive it said the account I was logged in as had ‘full access’ and was the ‘owner’.
What did work was setting the permissions for ‘Everyone’ to have full access. If user ‘Everyone’ is not listed in the set of authorized users for the folder/drive in question, you’ll need to add it.
Obviously not a good idea if you still need security permissions, but at least it should let you copy files off a hard disk that has weird permissions.
(lead to the answer by this: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/error-mapping-network-drive-between-vista-and/24bdf172-2dbc-43b8-995d-a99b6a81413c )
(another suggested solution that I didn’t try: http://www.vistax64.com/vista-file-management/143139-cant-change-permission-full-control-access-denied.html )
Hi matthias9119,
Thank you for the information. I will take another look at the tutorial and add to it.
Hi came across this as been searching for an answer to my issue, I am running XP but also have another hard drive with win 7 home premium on, so other day decided to have a look (as not really ready to move over to win 7 at present), whilst logged in there, I took ownership of files which I still need on XP, but as you can imagine I now try to open the files in XP and access is denied as win 7 has the files, is there anyway I can undo what I have done, as now cannot access Vuze/films/piccies/CV’s etc on XP
Thank You
First, thank you so much for you information above. It has gotten me quite far.
I have gotten to the point of starting the process of changing ownership, but the process just stops. I do not get the last message saying:
“If you have just taken ownership of this object, you will need to close and reopen this object’s properties before you can view or change permissions.”
When I close and reopen properties, I still cannot access my folders.
I am running XP S3 and trying to read an external hard drive with NTFS format. I am logged in as administrator.
I have also tried giving permission to EVERYONE but that has also not worked. I can see the top-level files on the hard drive, but I cannot see any of the folders. Any ideas? Thanks again for your great work!
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Sorry, but I have been pretty busy at work lately, hence the late replies.
Did you check the ‘Replace owner on subcontainers and objects’ box and hit Apply. Just prior to starting the taking of ownership? Make sure that box is checked.
Hi,
You wrote back to me on less than 24 hours- thanks for that!
Yes, I had checked that box before starting to take ownership and tried it again after your reply, but it is still stopping without showing the box that says:
“If you have just taken ownership of this object, you will need to close and reopen this object’s properties before you can view or change permissions.”
I can see the names of the missing folders as it tries to transfer ownership and Windows Explorer shows the same size, 227GB free on a 1TB Transcend external hard drive. So at least is seems that the files are still there, just inaccessible.
I have tried all tried almost every possible combination I could think of through the security tab, including ejecting and rebooting the hard drive and re-starting the computer between changing ownership and trying to read the files.
Three questions:
1. I have not tried clearing all permissions and owners, restarting the computer and then trying to access the drive. Is that a good idea? I was afraid that clearing all owners might not even let me get to the security tab. What do you advise?
2. Would it be worth installing Windows 7 instead or would the permission problems just follow me there?
3. As an extreme measure, if I reformat the laptop and start from scratch will that solve the problem? I don’t know if the problem with the permissions is on the laptop or on the external hard drive.
I have about 780Gb of data on the hard drive that has taken me years to collect. The data on the hard drive is much more important to me that the data on the laptop itself.
Also, there are no encrypted files on the drive, mostly pdf’s and videos of university lectures.
Sorry for the long post, I am getting desperate.
Thanks again!
Kevin
1. I have not tried clearing all permissions and owners, restarting the computer and then trying to access the drive. Is that a good idea? I was afraid that clearing all owners might not even let me get to the security tab. What do you advise?
You will always be able to access the Security tab as long as you have ‘Use simple file sharing [Recommended]‘ UNchecked
2. Would it be worth installing Windows 7 instead or would the permission problems just follow me there?
You could do this as the OS is significantly better than XP, but to be completely honest, I can’t be 100% if this would solve your problem. If you already have Win7 then you could try it to see if that helps, as it would do what you are asking in Q3. Just remember that you can’t upgrade to Win7 from XP, as it will require a Clean install which will wipe all information from the laptop. You could however, install Windows 7 on a separate partition on the laptop, but it would be far simpler to have just the one OS (pref Win7)
The data that you have on the external HDD is safe, it’s just getting permission to access it. A lot of the time, granting access to the external isn’t required as it will be plug and play. It’s only when the original OS has implemented security to that HDD you run into permissions problems. Windows 7 though, I have to say, does make the whole thing simpler.
I take it you can still write to the external HDD? If you are going to install Windows 7 (doesn’t take long) then dump all your important data (bookmarks,PDF’s, music etc) onto the external HDD and then try to access it via the newly installed Win7 OS.
Lastly, when you right clicked on the external HDD in My Computer, and went Properties>Security; have you made double sure that all of the boxes are ticked under the Allow heading (Full Control, Modify, Read, Write etc). If not, click Edit, and get them all ticked.
Popping out now for a reunion, but will try to look in via my mob.
Hi,
Thanks for your lightning-fast response. I am surprised that anyone can even type that fast, much less give an intelligent answer!
I am currently in Laos, so it is after 1:00 am. I will get some sleep and then try your ideas in the morning. Enjoy your reunion and no need to follow up right away, as I will be sleeping.
I will write back with an update tomorrow.
Cheers!
Kevin
Hi,
Here is an update on my situation:
1. I have not been able to get Windows 7 yet, but i hope to get it tomorrow.
2. I did try to read the hard drive from a friend’s laptop that was running Windows 7 and it did not work. i had the same problem as before, the folders were not visible.
3. I scanned the hard drive with Kaspersky, which found no viruses.
4. I noticed one thing when I tried again to take ownership. I had clicked through it before, but now I think it may be a significant part of the problem: When I tried to take ownership through the OWNERSHIP tab in the ADVANCED SECURITIES SETTINGS FOR TRANSCEND F: window I got a message saying I did not have access to something like volume 3 (my external hard drive) “##aswsnx private storage”. I cannot give you the exact wording because when I tried again to answer ownership, the message did not pop up. I tried to look up this ##aswsnx private storage and I can’t really make sense of the Google results I found. Is it a virus? Is it a piece of Avast, which I have never installed on my laptop? From what I have seen online, others who cannot see their folders on external hard drives have seen the same messages, so I suspect it may be the culprit. However, I have not found any source that explains clearly how to fix the problem. I cannot see the ##aswsnx private storage file among the top level items I can see on the hard drive. I have also tried searching the drive and it did not show up in the search results. Then again, none of my other invisible files show up in the search results either. I have also tried clicking the SHOW HIDDEN FILES box and none of the missing folders show up.
Any thoughts?
Thanks again,
Kevin
PS – I hope you had a good time at your reunion!
Hi Kevin,
I think that ‘##aswsnx private storage’ is the Sandbox for Avast.You may have installed Avast a while back and just forgot to remove it, or it was installed with another program.
There is obviously something preventing/ protecting certain files on the external HDD which is why the permissions are unable to be set correctly for you to take full ownership of the HDD.
I know that in the past when I have bought external HDD’s, that they came with a protection ‘locking’ type program that is installed at the root of the drive. This meant that anything placed onto the external HDD would be protected by that program. Can you see if there is something like this on your external HDD.
When you right clicked on the external HDD in My Computer, and went Properties>Security; have you made double sure that all of the boxes are ticked under the Allow heading (Full Control, Modify, Read, Write etc). If not, click Edit, and get them all ticked.
Have you tried, disabling your Antivirus and Firewall and then going through the process again, to make sure that either of those aren’t causing an issue?
I take it that you only have 1 Anti-virus installed.
Richard.
P.S Thanks, I had a good time catching up with old mates.
Richard,
Thanks for getting back to me.
1. Is there any chance that the ‘##aswsnx private storage’ is a malicious file with a fake name? Here is a related link to someone who detected it as ROOTKITS, whatever that means:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=64698.0
2. I checked the Storejet Elite software that was on the top level of the HDD. Nothing had been clicked to hide or encrypt any files. I have nothing sensitive in the files and made a point of trying NOT to encrypt or hide anything.
I did find a file called AUTOLOGIN.DB. It is a small file, only 9kb, but I am unable to take ownership of it. Do you think this file as any bearing?
3. In the SECURITY screen I made sure that all of the boxes were clicked. FULL CONTROL and all of the other boxes were ticked, except for SPECIAL PERMISSIONS. When I try to click on that nothing happens. Is that normal?
I also went to the EFFECTIVE PERMISSIONS tab and made sure that when I type in my user name everything is clicked, including TAKE CONTROL.
4. Yes, I tried disabling both the firewall and the antvirus and taking permission again, but that did not help. I have been safely removing the HDD and rebooting my laptop between every change in configuration, just to leave no stone unturned.
5. With the information you have now, do you think the problem lies with the laptop or with the HDD? Any educated guesses?
6. I have learned over the years that going to a computer repair store in pretty much useless in southeast Asia. It seems that all they know how to do is reformat a HDD and replace genuine operating systems with pirated software. So, I have to solve this online.
Please let me know if you have any new ideas.
I am a writer and linguist. If you help me solve this problem, I promise to compose an epic poem praising you. I will inscribe it onto baked-clay tablets and bury them in Mesopotamia, where they will be found by archaeologists in a few thousand years and your glory will live forever!
Seriously, thanks for your time!
Kevin
3. In the SECURITY screen I made sure that all of the boxes were clicked. FULL CONTROL and all of the other boxes were ticked, except for SPECIAL PERMISSIONS. When I try to click on that nothing happens. Is that normal?
Yep, I don’t have that checked either.
Download and run Malwarebytes (it’s a free program, and the best out there) When you install it it will ask if you want to try the trial version of the software, just say no (as you already have an anti-virus) and run a scan on your laptop (C: drive) and External HDD (probably E: or F:). The reason that I want you to run Malwarebytes, is to make sure that there isn’t anything dodgy on your drives that maybe causing the issue. It will also find any rootkits.
When you right-click on the HDD and go Properties>Security>Advanced>Permissions. Select the user that you are going to give permissions to (like Owner etc) Then click Change Permissions>Edit and make sure that all of the boxes are checked. Uncheck any in the Deny field.
Run Malwarebytes first, so that we can make sure that the PC is clean.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/
Also, make sure that any sign of Avast is also removed. You already have Kaspersky as your main anti-virus, so making sure that all elements of Avast are removed would be a good idea.
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
Hi,
I ran the Avast Uninstall utility as you suggested. I also ran Malwarebytes (Full scan) on all of the drives. It did find three registry problems:
Hijack.ControlPanelStyle – Registry Value
PUM.Hijack.StartMenu – Registry Data
PUM.Hijack.Help – Registry Data
I don’t know if any of these are related to my problems (I don’t think so, from the names of the files). In any case after removing these items I still cannot see the missing folders. I also notice that if I try to do a search on the external HDD for one of the missing file names it comes back with no results in about half a second. That is not long enough to search a 1TB HDD, so it looks like the search function is only searching through the few dozen top-level files.
Sorry to eat up more of your time on this.
Thanks!
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Those finding by Malwarebytes could be false positives.
Can you give me the make and model of your Transcend external HDD? I’m wondering if the hard drive itself has a fault. It may be fine, but it’s another area to check as we have tried quite a few diffent things now.
http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/DLCenter/index.asp?LangNo=0&Func1No=3&Func2No=205#L2
There should be a diagnosic tool for the hard drive, which can give a health check on the drive itself as well as having a recovery tool. If you do use these tool, be careful that you DON’T reformat the drive in any way shape or for. That is the last thing you want.
Hi,
I have already removed the three items that Malwarebytes found. Even if they were false positives, removing them has not yet had any effect, positive or negative, on my system.
My HDD is a StoreJet 25H2P USB 2.0, with 1TB capacity. It was not dropped or exposed to water, extreme temperatures or anything like that. It was working fine until I had some kind of black screen error where I could not boot up. After having the OS re-installed the folders were no longer visible. I will try the diagnostic tool from the Transcend web site and then get back to you.
By the way, is it okay to use your first name when I respond to you. You signed of with your name once but I don’t know if that was by mistake and if you would rather not use it in these messages. Please advise.
Thanks again!
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Looking at the software that they supply for that HDD, the only software that may help, is the Transcend Elite software. Don’t use the other two as they mainly deal with formatting.
The Transcend Elite software has a data recovery tool, which you can use to check to see if the software is able to see the data.
One other thing (seperate to the above) When you browse through the files/ folders on your external HDD are you able to drag any files over to your laptop?
No worries about using my name by the way. Most people either know me as Richard or Dickie. Either is OK.
Hi,
I found some recovery software called RecoverRx on the Transcend site:
I am missing about 720GB of data but I only have a 250GB HDD on my laptop. I will try to find a computer with enough space, so I can copy the files to the other computer and see if it works. It may take me some time to find a computer with a big enough HDD here in Vientiane. I will let you know as soon as I am able to try it out, hopefully within a few days.
Thanks again for everything. I will let you know if it works.
Kevin
You could also try running a check disk on the external hdd. To do this, locate the devive in My Computer. Then right-click on it and Properties>Tools>Error Checking>Check Now. Tick both boxes and hit Start. You shouldn’t have to restart to perform this as it’s not the system drive. (If you were to do this on your C: drive then a restart would be required) It’s a good idea to run this check on your HDD every now and then, so also run it on your C: drive (system) as well, after running it on the external one.
I did try to run Check Disk a few days ago. It took many hours and I fell asleep when it was 94% finished. When I woke up, my computer had been automatically restarted and I did not see the Check Disk report. I will try to run it again and stay awake to see the result!
Superb explanation
Thank you Hans.
You saved my entire drive. Prior to reading this, I was not clicking on a certain little important checkbox ‘Replace owner on subcontainers and objects’. Thank you SO incredibly much.
Hey Andrea,
Glad to hear that it helped you and your data is safe. Now just make sure that you have it backed up somewhere on-line, just in case the hard drive fully dies.
I followed all the procedures above, and the hard drive is now NTFS with my current computer as the owner, but I still cannot see My Documents. The only file in the drive is Program Files.
Hi Lee,
Have you tried giving ‘Everyone’ full permissions until you are able to see the folder, making sure that all the boxes are checked (Full Control, Modify, Read, Write etc)
You state that, ‘and the hard drive is now NTFS’. What was it before?
Thank you for responding. I have changed all permissions. And, I shouldn’t have made it confusing by specifying it was NTFS. I don’t know what it was before, I only know that it is NTFS now.
Thank you very very much, your article regarding this application was extremely helpful, we need more people like thoughs in your organization. I am also a person with integrity and am very helpful if you want or need me to be. When needed I will share this with others. Thank you once again.
Ii was unable to read all of the replies in this thread, so forgive me if someone else has already shared this. One of the comments above relating to Operating Systems & connecting a hard drive to a computer other than it’s original, triggered a memory of a problem that I have (still unresolved).
External HD-originally connected to XP Pro PC (NTFS format), which was then connected to a computer running Windows 7 Ultimate = No issues. I was able to view & take ownership of files.
However I do have a situation where the Windows 7 PC, purchased as a rebuilt computer, which had XP on it originally (sticker on PC), has space which is used, but where ??? The current setup, system files, no data files it uses about 14GB, and there is about 13-14GB unaccounted for. Also the recovery folder owner (in adv sec ) says Owner=”Unable to display current Owner” & when I try to give ownership to Administrators Group (currently only permissions shown are Administrator=Full Access), aside from not seeing the normal scrolling of files as they are updated, the owner/permissions don’t change.Trying to ID where the missing space was being used, I came across several folders that flagged “you do not have access” & “must be an Administrator” (which I am), or had user SID’s which were unknown (must be old files).
The PC that was previously owned, was completely restored (I was told), hard drive data erased, an everything installed as if new. However I noticed after a couple months that I had less than 1GB of available space on my 30GB Hard Drive. I figured out that XP was the OS originally & when I bought it it’s had Windows 7 Ultimate. I’m certain that there is an enormous part of my HD that is used up by the previous owner’s configuration, data, software, etc. But I cannot see anything has is what I was sold After I uninstalled most of the Programs that I rarely used, moved all of my data files to a 4GB flash drive, and realized that even when down to bare bones (Office,Adobe Reader, Google Chrome,etc) I still had just over 1 GB available, I have resorted to disabling extra Office features, including Word! With all of the things I have removed & still not having enough space to install Word. I’m planning on trying to wipe the HD clean and re-install the Programs that allow me to look up my keys. I hope I don’t miss the ones that I am unable to recover the keys for
Hi Michelle,
I’ll try to get to the issues one-by-one.
First, can you download and run WinDirStat. It a tiny application 733KB http://windirstat.info/wds_current_setup.exe
This will give you a visual representation of what is taking up the most space on your hdd and what it is.
One thing to remember with Windows 7 (and XP) is that overtime, Windows files will increase by quite a bit. Many of the increases are due to page files, temp files, system restore points etc.
The minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit). That’s the initial install. Overtime this will grow as you have to add more updates etc.
Your HDD is 30GB (originally before being formated) in size, which after being converted to NTFS will be more like 27-28GB (approx estimated lost due to formatting). For example, my 1.5TB HDD after being formatted to NTFS goes down to 1.36TB. This may account for some of the unexplained use of HDD space.
Replacing your 30GB HDD for a 250GB or 500GB (you can get these pretty cheap these days) would help you out a lot.
How much RAM do you have installed?
To find out what your licence keys are, try using Magic Jelly Bean. http://techfleece.com/2011/11/16/how-to-find-your-product-key-in-windows-xp-vista-and-windows-7/
I am trying to recover files from an XP drive on my Win7 machine. I allowed access to “Everyone” but the My Documents folder of the user I’m trying to access is still locked. On the Security tab is “You do not have permission to view or edit this object’s security settings” Any ideas on how to get around this?
nevermind. i figured it out. thanks for all the info.
but what about memory card
If you are trying to recover files from a memory card, then use Recuva. It’s a great free bit of software that can recover files that have been deleted easily. As long as they haven’t been written over that is.
Is that what you meant?
http://www.piriform.com/recuva