# Solved: D:\ is not accessible. Access is denied.



## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

I've encountered a problem on my Windows XP machine. Suddenly, neither the D:\ drive (Asus CD R/W drive) or the E:\ drive (Lite-On DVD R/W drive) will read media. Another computer will read the media, so it's not the CDs or the DVDs. This computer (and the drives) has basically worked flawlessly for the past three years. I've added RAM and an additional hard drive over time, but no changes have been made in about the last six months. When I look at the drives with Device Manager, it says that they are working fine (I disagree). The drive trays work, so they're getting power. I've disconnected and re-connected the IDE cable - no change. I've also tried removing one drive at a time from the system thinking that perhaps a problem with one drive on the IDE cable could be causing a problem with both drives, but no change (I reconfigured the master/slave jumpers when I did this). Anybody have any ideas/suggestions?


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Try going into device manager and selecting each drive then uninstalling both of them. Close device manager and reboot your computer. This will reload a fresh instance of the driver for the optical drives. You will notice when windows loads to the desktop that you will have a "Found New Hardware" Notice. THis is Windows reinstalling the Drivers for the drives. Sometimes this works. SOmetimes Optical Drives just die. But to have it happen to 2 drives at the same time would be too much coincedence for me. Though it could happen.


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried uninstalling both drives, then rebooting. No change. However, I did discover additional information. This machine has a 3.5 in floppy drive (I know, I know, but when I built this machine I had a lot of floppies around.) I thought about swapping IDE cables, but before I did that, I thought I'd make sure that the floppy drive was working. Guess what? Same problem! I get a "A:\ is not accessible. Access is denied." message. By the way, as of the moment, the A:\ (floppy) drive and the D:\ (CD) drive both give the "...not accessible. Access is denied." message (whether there's media in the drive or not), while the E:\ (DVD) drive puts up the message to "please insert a disc". When I do so, I can hear the drive working, but the read operation is never successful.

So this means that I now have 3 IDE devices on 2 separate cables that have all gone bad. THis makes me EXTREMELY suspicious, but I don't know what to do to resolve the problem. Any thoughts anybody?


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

Just to add more wierdness to this problem, I thought I'd try to burn a CD with NERO (this is the old OEM NERO I got with drives when I originally bought them). Amazingly (to me) the CD burned perfectly. Then, when I tried to look at the disc using "My Computer", I got the "Access is denied" message. I checked the CD on another device, and it's fine. This indicates to me that perhaps the problem is with "My Computer" (Windows Explorer?). Should I re-post this as a Software problem? Thoughts?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It sounds like there may be policy restrictions in place for your security level in reading CD's. Are you an Admin? Do others use the machine and could they have imposed any restrictions? What version of XP?


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

I'm the only user of the machine. Windows version XP 5.1 SP3. I'm uncertain about the Administrator question, as I've never attempted to set up any accounts on this machine.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Then you probably have Home edition with no Group Policy applet.

Try RegToy. In particular, in the Security > Drive section, you may find that somehow access to the drives has been restricted (possibly by malware).

Though your machine is XP, also look under section 2 of the Vista settings to see about drive access restrictions.


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

You're correct, it's XP Home Edition.

Thanks for the input. I downloaded RegToy and installed it.

In the Security > Drives section, ALL drives were checked in BOTH section, indicating unhidden & unrestricted.

Going to the Widows Vista section and looking at tab "2", I note that there are NO checkmarks for any of the items show there. I assume that is what you mean by "...look under section 2 of the Vista settings to see about drive access restrictions."

In my engineer way of looking at this problem, this is what I see: I have three devices on the IDE bus (A:\ (floppy), D:\ (CD R\W), and E:\ (DVD R/W). All of these devices have worked every time I've attempted to use them since the computer was built about three years ago.

Suddenly, NONE of these three IDE devices can be accessed with Windows Explorer (My Computer).

Using NERO, I can WRITE to drive D:\ (Master), which indicates that the problem is NOT with the IDE bus.

Also using NERO, If I attempt to write to drive E:\ (slave), NERO never recognizes that there is a blank CD inserted in the drive.

If I place an autorun disc or commercial music CD in either the CD or DVD drives, they WILL NOT start (but I can see the indicator lights on the front panels blinking and hear the drives "working" for a while.

This strikes me as a strange combination of "read" and "write" problems.

I cannot "read" A:\
I cannot "read" D:\
I cannot "read" E:\

DOS cannot "write" to A:\ (tried to copy a small .txt file)
NERO CAN "write" to D:\ (created a music CD)
NERO cannot "write" to E:\ (attempted to create the same music CD)

I'm really at a loss here - don't know what to try next....


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Do you have a bootable CD? Such as maybe the XP installation disc? With out completing the installation if it boots, see if you can boot to the XP disc if you have one. If you can boot the XP Disc then you may not be facing a hardware problem but possibly a Windows Problem.

Floppy drives are not IDE drives, they are on a separate controller from the IDE Channels as far as I know. I may be wrong about that though.


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

Good suggestion, dustyjay. I loaded my XP disc in the CD drive, rebooted, and the Windows installation started right up! This pretty much eliminates a hardware problem as you point out, and makes this a software problem.

Should my next step be to use the "Repair Console" on the XP disc (I know nothing about it - yet), or is there something else I should do first?


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

I would go for this instead of Repair Console. the only thing you wold lose is any service pacs and windows updates not included on the XP Installation disc. It is called a Repair Installation, it fixes corrupt windows files or missing windows files by reinstallig them, it will also maintain any of yuor installed programs, drivers, and data files. ALthough should there be a problem during the installation it is a good idea to have a back up of your data files. I have used it over 100 times and never lost a file or data, exceot the windows updates and service packs as mentioned. http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


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## bigbadbruce (Jul 17, 2009)

Sorry about the delay in replying, but I had a few other things to do and I also wanted to make certain my data was protected before performing the Repair Install. Anyway, I followed your suggestion and performed the repair install and it seems to have corrected the problem. Windows Explorer can now access the A:\ and D:\ drives with no problem, but performance of the E:\ drive seems spotty (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't). I've already ordered a replacement DVD burner from Newegg.

So thanks you (and Elvandil) for taking the time to offer me useful insights and suggestions. Your efforts are appreciated.


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