Weird external hard drive issue

[ChuckH]

I have an external hard drive that I copy the movies to. On this computer, the drive is working fine. All the folders and shows are listed. I safely removed the drive and plugged it into the other computer. The main folder was listed, but I could not open it. No subfolders were listed, nor were any of the files. I scanned the drive and no errors were shown. I safely removed the drive and opened it on this computer and all the files and folders were shown. Back to the other computer and no changes, the files and subfolders were missing. After rebooting the computer, everything is there, but I don't have permission to view or access the folders, even as administrator.

 

[DQ]

If you are going to move files from one windows machine to another like that you would indeed have permissions issues as such. If your intent is to move them back and forth you might need to set the permissions to "everyone" and I am not 100% that would work between 2 PCs not on a domain. However if you just need to make this move one time then all you need to do is take ownership of the files on PC2.

If the goal is just to access the files from 2 PCs (assuming they are on the same network) you could just share the main folder on PC1 so PC2 can access it across the network. Again though you would have to set the share permissions to everyone.

Hope that helps.

 

[ChuckH]

I mostly watch the shows from the portable drive away from home, in a place where I don't have internet access other than my cell phone.

I used to be able to access these files on the affected computer. When I go in and check permissions, it says that full access is assigned to everyone. When I try to make changes on the account with administrative access, I get told that I don't have permission to make those changes. And the drive works fine on every other computer.

 

[RedFox 1]

I mostly watch the shows from the portable drive away from home, in a place where I don't have internet access other than my cell phone.

I used to be able to access these files on the affected computer. When I go in and check permissions, it says that full access is assigned to everyone. When I try to make changes on the account with administrative access, I get told that I don't have permission to make those changes. And the drive works fine on every other computer.

That's a Windows permission issue, I think google might have all the answers you need.

 

[ChuckH]

I think it is a bad hard drive. I've been having other issues with this specific drive. This drive used to have permissions on that computer, but suddenly stopped. I can't give permission to this drive. Recently, all the new files I copied to the drive did not show up. I scanned the drive and it showed no errors. I repaired the drive and that scan showed errors and repaired them, and the new files showed up. This is the only external hard drive I am having issues with, so I think it is just a bad drive.

 

[DQ]

I think it is a bad hard drive. I've been having other issues with this specific drive. This drive used to have permissions on that computer, but suddenly stopped. I can't give permission to this drive. Recently, all the new files I copied to the drive did not show up. I scanned the drive and it showed no errors. I repaired the drive and that scan showed errors and repaired them, and the new files showed up. This is the only external hard drive I am having issues with, so I think it is just a bad drive.

Your initial description sounds like permissions for sure and permissions are not transparent between 2 pc's unless they are the same domain.

Typically if a HD is going bad it will be in the way of bad sectors or you know it start's making noises because a motor is about to eat it.

If it's bad sectors a scan will mark them as bad , move the data and continue to function but in my experience more bad sectors always show up so if that's the case might as well replace it before you lose data.

 

[ChuckH]

Your initial description sounds like permissions for sure and permissions are not transparent between 2 pc's unless they are the same domain.

Typically if a HD is going bad it will be in the way of bad sectors or you know it start's making noises because a motor is about to eat it.

If it's bad sectors a scan will mark them as bad , move the data and continue to function but in my experience more bad sectors always show up so if that's the case might as well replace it before you lose data.

Permissions won't change themselves without user intervention. This drive had permissions on that computer before this incident happened. Also, I should be able to change the permissions and I can't.

Given that and the other issues I have been having, I think it is the drive. I have all the shows saved to 3 different external hard drives, one for movies and TV shows for my home television, one for movies and another for TV shows for my travel viewing. This is the drive for the travel TV shows that is giving me problems. If it goes bad, I still have the copy for my home drive. I will be saving up for to buy a new drive and I don't think I am going to buy anymore WD external drives from Costco.

 

[coopervid]

Nah. Go to the root directory and change the permissions doing a right click. This has nothing to do with the manufacturer.

 

[DQ]

Nah. Go to the root directory and change the permissions doing a right click. This has nothing to do with the manufacturer.

From one PC to another that are not interconnected in a domain you might have to manually take ownership of the files. But I know typically windows will prompt to do that when it encounters permissions it does not have.

 

[ChuckH]

Like I said, this drive had proper permissions on the PC and suddenly lost the permissions. I did not change anything, but the drive was having other issues. This is a drive problem.