# Solved: Win 8.1 denies me acces to external HDD



## grissom (Apr 14, 2006)

HI helpers,

I have a pc with 2x sata HDD's: one has Windows 8.1 installed (I use that vitually all the time); the other has Win 7 installed. I don't use a boot manager - if I want to run Win7, I use the 'boot select' option. (F11).

I have a Seagate 2tb usb3 external HDD fitted via a usb2 port; it has been working fine for a year or more.

The other day Win8.1 said that access was denied and no way can I access that drive - although I did scan it, (via rt-click) with Mawarebytes. It was fine - so Malwarebytes can access it but I cannot. In 'my computer', it is displayed as a drive without any details, (i.e. size, free & used space, etc). So Win8.1 acknowleges that there is a drive but cannot access it.

If I boot into Win 7 however, The drive apeears and is useable as usual. Though every folder has a 'lock' symol on it.

Any advice would be welcome please; I need it to work with Win8.1.

Many thanks for reading.


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

In Windows 8.1, does the external drive show a drive letter ? If not, right click Computer, choose Manage, go to Disk Management. Right click on the drive and give it a drive letter.


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## grissom (Apr 14, 2006)

Hi, thanks; yes it does.

If I eject and re-plug in the drive, I get the message:- 'Unknown Content Drive E tap to choose what happens to unknown content'. Tap that and a blank folder opens plus a pane with the message: 'E:\is not accessible'. 'Access is denied'.

Still, Win7, being clever shows everything on the drive. So it's specific to Win 8/8.1 A bit puzzling. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## grissom (Apr 14, 2006)

Another piece of information is that in Win 8/8.1 (I installed a clean copy of Win8 on a spare HDD to check), when I try to run error checking from 'properties - tools', it says 'the disk check could not be performed because Windows could not access the disc'.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

This is just a shot in the dark. Check the Seagate web site to see if they offer a Windows 8.1 (or Windows 8) driver for the hard drive.


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## lunarlander (Sep 22, 2007)

OK so it has a drive letter. Right click on that, choose Properties, Security tab. What you should see is either your account name, or the Users group. And below they should show Read, Read Execute checked. 

If you can't see Users group nor your account name, then the normal procedure is to take ownership of the drive. But I don't know if taking ownership will prevent your Win 7 from reading the drive. 

Perhaps in the Security tab, you can click Edit button, then Add button, to add either Users group or your account name to the list.


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## grissom (Apr 14, 2006)

1. Thanks for the shot in the dark suggestion. Seagate have no firmware updates for external HDD's - they reckon it's up to the O/S provider. In any case though, the drive has worked for 18 months or so as is. Thanks for the suggestion though - I hadn't thought of that one.

2. I had tried the security tab and Windows wouldn't allow me to make changers. Thanks though - I believe the problem did lie there. The security threads are well worth a read, thank you for the links.
I ended up deleting some folders and moving all the others onto other spare HDD's to backup; (1.2tb)!! I've now deleted the drive (using wWin 7) and made it into 4x smaller partitions. Windows 8 now uses the new partitions correctly and I just have to spend about 24 hours replacing the files to my externall HDD.

Having used Win 95, 98, 98SE, XP, Win7, Win8 and Win 8.1, there are some aspects of Win 8 onwards that are truly better. Overall though Win 7 was good enough except for a lack of built-in drivers. I am happy to be disagreed with, but if someone at Microsoft got the sack over Windows 8 - it serves them right.

The problem wasn't solved - more resolved. But in any case I will mark it solved to close the matter.

Thanks for inputs.


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