Folder Access Denied???

[qquake2k]

A couple of weeks ago I started getting "Access Denied" errors when I try to move or delete files in an external hard drive I have. It doesn't happen in a second drive. I tried formatting the hard drive, to no avail. Out of desperation I bought a new external drive, but I'm having the same problem with it.
It's the same brand as the old one that I can still make changes to. I tried researching the problem on the internet, but none of the supposed "fixes" have fixed it. This is so frustrating. Why can't I make changes on my own hard drives? I haven't made any changes to the computer. I'm running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. Anybody know how to fix this and keep it from happening again?

 

[markkoelsch]

Can Acronis backup and restore to/from this drive? How is the drive formatted ntfs/fat32?

Do you run with your account as a local administrator, or do you have a separate admin account you use for admin type functions?

 

[o1d_dude]

Have you tried using the "Run as Administator" technique?

Best practice is to not use the Admin acct for general use. Call it up by right clicking on the command giving you grief and select "Run as Administrator". You'll most likely have to enter the admin password before it will let you do the action.

Win 7 does similar things. I don't have Win 10 so you may have to experiment a bit with my advice.

 

[qquake2k]

Can Acronis backup and restore to/from this drive? How is the drive formatted ntfs/fat32?

Do you run with your account as a local administrator, or do you have a separate admin account you use for admin type functions?

Yes, Acronis backs up to this drive successfully. I haven't needed to restore, so I don't know about that. It's NTFS. As far as I know I'm the local administrator. I don't have a separate admin account.

 

[markkoelsch]

Can you see the ntfs permissions on the drive?

 

[qquake2k]

Can you see the ntfs permissions on the drive?

As far as I can tell, all users have full control.

 

[Charles_McG]

Could a group policy setting have gotten changed? It's possible to block writing to removable media via policy.

 

[mpitfield]

Deny takes preference over allow. Go to advanced and somewhere in there you can input your username and it will enumerate your permissions. To see if a GPO is in play at the command line type to result /r this will show you a list of GPOs that apply to the computer and user. If you're not on a domain or never where, then you likely have no GPOs.

 

[qquake2k]

I've just discovered the problem is with the Acronis files, not with the drive. I can delete and move other files, just not Acronis. I can't even shred the Acronis files with AVG.

 

[mpitfield]

I've just discovered the problem is with the Acronis files, not with the drive. I can delete and move other files, just not Acronis. I can't even shred the Acronis files with AVG.

Mystery solved! Just out of curiosity, are they locked, as in in-use, or do they have different NTFS permissions set from the parent folder?

 

[qquake2k]

Mystery solved! Just out of curiosity, are they locked, as in in-use, or do they have different NTFS permissions set from the parent folder?

I don't know, I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. I need to contact Acronis.

 

[Rex R]

The next question is; can you move/delete those files using Acronis?
Rex

 

[markkoelsch]

The Acronis likely runs as a service within windows, and locks the files. If you stop/disable Acronis you could likely get rid of the file. That said, if you are using Acronis to backup you probably do not want to do that.

 

[qquake2k]

Got it figured out. There was an obscure setting in Acronis that our IT guy found. Turned it off and voila!