How to Fix Inaccessible Hard Drive- “Access is Denied” Error and Recover Data

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 23 Jan, 2024
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‘Hard Drive is not accessible. Access is denied’ is one of the most common errors that make the hard drives inaccessible and in the worst case, it could also lead to data loss. Here in this blog you will find the solutions to fix the issue. We will also share an easy, DIY method to recover your lost data stored on inaccessible hard drive using Stellar Data Recovery tool.

The hard drive is one of the major storage components of a computer system. It stores various kinds of data like text, pictures, audios, videos, etc. Any problem arising in such hard drives could lead to inaccessibility of the data present in it. Such inaccessibility is often supported by various error messages. One of the most common error messages that make the hard drives inaccessible is “Hard Drive is not accessible. Access is denied“.

Hard Drive is not accessible. Access is denied — *Figure 1: Access is Denied Error*

What is this “Access is Denied” error?

The error message indicates that there is some problem with the hard drive, which has made the hard drive inaccessible. In the worst case, it could also lead to data loss.

Why do we face it?

The issues mentioned above can be experienced in many different situations as well as different versions of operating systems. The error message indicates that the hard drive has gone corrupt.

To get over from the situation, you can follow any of the two solutions mentioned below:

Automatic Method
and, Manual Method.

1. How to Automatically Fix this Error?

To solve hard drive inaccessibility issues, formatting will be the sure shot way. However, the stored data may be compromised, and you may permanently lose access to it. To avoid losing data, you can use data recovery programs that can recover data from the inaccessible hard drive without altering the file attributes.

Use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Windows to recover files from the inaccessible hard drive or any other storage media with similar issues. You can free download this data recovery software on any latest Windows machine and begin scanning the formatted or erased hard drive for your data.

You can select specific volume giving you access denied error. Once you select the volume, click on Scan button to initiate scanning process. Here is the video to show how you can recover the lost data:

2. How to Fix this Error via Manual Ways?

a) For Windows 10

If you are running Windows 10 then follow below steps to access your inaccessible drive:

Right-click on the inaccessible drive.
Now go to the ‘Properties’ section.

Select the ‘Security’ and click on the ‘Edit’ button.

The “Permissions for New Volume (E:)” dialog box appears, as shown in the figure below. Click the ‘Add’ button to continue.

Add a new user named ‘Authenticated User’ and Click ‘OK’.
From the permission section, give ‘full control’ to newly added user and click ‘OK’.
The dialog box will show two options: ‘Continue’ or ‘Cancel’.
Press Continue… and Cancel at last.
Now, you are done.

b) For Windows 7

In the case of Windows 7, you might get that error if you are running HomeGroup and have shared a root drive E:\, and finally, you have left the HomeGroup. This situation would deny you any access to the drive that was shared and would give you the following error message.

To resolve this issue, go to the Windows Explorer and follow the below mentioned steps:

Right-click on the inaccessible hard drive.
Click Properties.
Go to the Security tab, and then click Advanced.
Click ‘Edit’ by going to the Owner tab.
Modify the ownership of the desired account.

Alternatively, you can also try the following option if you are not able to access any file or folder on a Windows 7 drive.

Right-click on the inaccessible file or folder.
Click Properties.
Select the Security tab.
Click your name Under Group or username. This would show you the permissions you have to access the file and folder.

You can also try the following method:

Change the drive letter for an inaccessible hard drive.
Run the following command: chkdsk /r I:
Try to boot into the safe mode and access the HDD.
Try accessing the HDD in Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium.
You will be able to access the drive, as chkdsk command would have deleted the files that were causing the problem.

c) For Windows Vista

You can also face a similar kind of situation while working with Windows Vista.

Like Windows 7, you can also check the permissions of the file or folder in Windows Vista.

Go to the Properties by right-clicking the file or folder.
Click the Security tab.
From usernames or Group, check the permissions you have by clicking your name.

You can also check if the problem is due to an encrypted file or not, by following the below mentioned steps.

Right-click on the inaccessible hard drive.
Click Properties.
Click the General tab-> Advanced.
See the checkbox encrypt is selected or not.
If yes, then get the certificate used for encryption to open the file. The encryption certificate lies with the person who creates the file.

You need to have an encryption key or certificates for those Windows edition in which the Encrypting File System (EFS) is not fully supported. For example, Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium do not support it so that you can follow the below mentioned steps.

Open the Command Prompt.
Type Cipher.exe /d on the command prompt to decrypt the file.
Change the encrypted file.
Copy the decrypted file on your computer’s hard disk.
Import keys and EFS certificates.
Open the Command Prompt.
Type Cipher.exe /r to back up EFS certificates and keys.

d) For Windows XP

In the case of Windows XP, you might face the “Access is denied” issue if you have used an earlier version of Windows to create a volume based on NTFS file system and then installed Windows XP.

A change in the version of the operating system changes the security ID of the user. As the security ID of the person who created the folder was different on an earlier version of the Windows, in spite of the same username and password you do not have the permission to open the folder after you perform the following steps.

The actual location of the ‘My Documents’ folder has been changed before installing Windows XP professional.
Install Windows XP Professional, by formatting the primary partition.

For resolution turn off the Simple File Sharing option and take ownership of the folder.

Open ‘My Computer’.
Go to Tools->Folder->View.
Go to Advanced Settings and clear the Use simple file sharing checkbox.
Click OK.
Right-click the desired folder for ownership and click Properties.
Click the Security tab.
Click OK on the Security message if any.
Click Advanced->Owner tab.
Click your username in the Name list.
Click OK.
In case you get an error message, click ‘Yes’.
Click OK.
Reapply the permissions and security settings.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

192 comments

Jyoti Prakash says:

April 4, 2018 at 4:47 am

Hello RV,

Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery!

Please take the backup of your data on 258 GB flash drive then you may try to reformat it in FAT32 using command prompt.

If you wish to recover the deleted or lost data then we have data recovery software to recover the files.

Please feel free to get back to us for any further query.

Reply
RV Repmac says:

March 29, 2018 at 6:43 pm

I have a similar but different mystery. The system is Win7 on a Compaq CQ57. Trying to format a purchased, used Fujitsu MHT2080AH. The denial says Q:\ is not available. Access is Denied. So far all problems are the same.
Unable to set new owner on Local disk (Q:) Access denied.
Tried all three methods without success.
Tried formatting: warning says; You do not have sufficient rights to perform this operation.
I’d like to format and partition this HDD to be boot-able by choice from any of the partitions and have more than one or two operating systems resident

Reply
vic says:

March 20, 2018 at 8:19 am

Hello. I don’t see the security tab under the properties window of my inaccessible drive. But the other drives have the tab. Please help. I’m stuck.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  March 21, 2018 at 3:40 am
  
  Hello Vic,
  
  Thank you for trusting Stellar Data Recovery.
  
  In order to assist for the query please provide us the below details:
  
  1. Is there any encryption applied in the drive?
  2. Is the drive connected to the system via USB cable?
  3. Reason for data loss?
  4. Screenshot of Disk Management
  
  Reply
Mark Simpson says:

January 9, 2018 at 10:28 am

Hey, I have a hard drive I formatted on accident a while ago. I have, for all intensive purpose, lost all the data on it. A side from plugging it in every once in a while to try a new recovery technique on it, I do not use it and have not placed or deleted any more files from the disk since I formatted it. It is a one TB drive that is about 95% full with maybe 90% of that being video since I am a video production company. As I understand it, the files may still be on the drive, just not readable to an average software. What are the chances for me to recover that with your software?

Reply
1. Shailendra Kumar says:
  
  January 16, 2018 at 10:10 am
  
  Hello Mark,
  Feel very sorry for your hard drive. But, you don’t need to worry, our wizard software named as Stellar photo recovery software capable to recover all your data with its powerful algorithm, I’m very much sure about it. I suggest you to please download the demo version of stellar phoenix photo recovery software (download here) and try to preview the videos.
  
  Reply
RV Mallorca says:

December 2, 2017 at 4:30 am

Thank you so much for this article. I thought I lost all my files forever. Keep publishing help articles for us non techies! God Bless

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  December 18, 2017 at 8:59 am
  
  Hello RV Mallorca,
  
  Thank you for the feedback.
  
  Reply
Braim Moon says:

November 21, 2017 at 5:58 pm

Good day sir, Please i shared my C:drive and when i was done with the purpose of sharing, which was for the clients to access files and folders which i kept in my C:drive on my system which is the server; i tried to “unshare” my C: and denied access on the “SYSTEM” that is usually displayed under the security tab below authenticated users in security tab. Everything happened so fast and since then i cant open my local disk C again. I can’t view group or usernames in security tab. I can’t paste after copying files from my external hard drive, i can’t use my installed scanner on the system. I DOWNLOADED your recovery software using another Laptop PC, after which i tried installing on the affected system but pops up access denied window. Please help me out. I can’t afford to lose my files and folders.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 28, 2017 at 10:01 am
  
  Hello Braim,
  
  Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
  
  Kindly download Stellar Windows Data Recovery Professional from the below-mentioned link:
  
  Download Link
  
  Please follow the below mentioned steps to perform the scan on the drive:
  
  1. Run Stellar Windows Data Recovery.
  2. From Select What to Recover screen, select the type of data i.e. Everything, Documents, Folders & Emails or Multimedia Files, you want to recover.
  3. Click on Next.
  4. On Select Location screen, select Can’t Find Drive from Other Locations.
  5. Click on ‘Scan’ button.
  6. In the Select Drive section all the hard drives connected to the system are listed with their details. From this section, choose a hard drive you want to scan for lost partitions and click Search. A scan for lost or deleted partitions will be performed in the selected disk or drive.
  7. Any ‘lost partition’ detected, will be listed in the Partition Found section
  8. From the list of partitions found, select any desired partition and click Scan to continue with the recovery process.
  
  Note: If you can’t find your desired partition in the Partition Found section, you can choose Deep Scan option to perform a comprehensive scan of the selected drive for deleted or lost partition.
  
  Reply
Pal says:

November 16, 2017 at 1:56 pm

R/dears
previously, I have used win7 home basic and after it I have installed win xp and stored all my important data in Local Disk drive G/
All drives are accessible now.
But after that I have installed win 7 ultimate. But after installation ofwin7 ultimate when I tried to open drive G/ it shows ‘Access is denied’ as it is mentioned as NTFS.
KINDLY HELP ME TO ACCESS MY ALL DATA IN DRIVE G/

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 21, 2017 at 5:38 am
  
  Hello Pal,
  
  The error message indicates that there is some problem with the hard drive, which can be experienced in many different situations as well as different versions of operating systems.
  
  Please try to download the professional stellar phoenix data recovery software on some other working PC. Below are the steps.
  
  Download and install this program and start it from the desktop.
  In this particular case, you can select specific volume giving you access denied error. Once you select the volume, click on Scan button to initiate scanning process.
  You can see the list of recoverable files and folders once the scanning is finished. Click on the checkbox to select files for recovery.
  You can choose a location to save the recovered data.
  The selected files will save in just a matter of time to the desired location.
  
  Reply
daramdeep says:

October 26, 2017 at 10:04 am

Hi,
Just need your help ..i got an problem with giving permission before and now i am not accessing a drive E. and in advance button in security .. didnt display the current owner and cannot manage a permission .. i think this is not a hard drive problem ..can you suggest me what can be the solutions ? really need to access the data from E drive as there are my important files ….

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  November 22, 2017 at 3:27 am
  
  Hello,
  
  I would advise you to go to the properties of the E Drive and Click on Security Option. After that please check the ownership rights to access the drive is allowed or not. If not then click on edit and check mark the Full Control Option in “Permission For Authenticated Users”.
  
  Reply
Ontealain says:

October 20, 2017 at 8:38 am

Thank you so much, I’ve fixed my wd external hard with the manual method in windows 10 and it took about 3 minutes to fix 1TB data.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  October 31, 2017 at 10:39 am
  
  Hello Ontealain,
  
  Thanks for reading the post.
  
  Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for latest offers and updates.
  
  Reply
hemakumar says:

August 30, 2017 at 12:36 am

how to access the inaccessable hdd drive in windows8.1

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  August 31, 2017 at 3:25 am
  
  Dear Hemakumar,
  
  We recommend you to try the demo version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional.
  
  Kindly install the software from the below-mentioned link:
  
  Download Link
  
  After installing the software, please follow the below-mentioned steps to perform the scan on your drive:
  
  1. Run Stellar Windows Data Recovery.
  2. From Select What to Recover screen, select the type of data i.e. Everything, Documents, Folders & Emails or Multimedia Files, you want to recover.
  3. Click Next.
  4. On Select Location screen, select Can’t Find Drive from Other Locations
  5. Now click on ‘Scan’ button.
  6. In the Select Drive section all the hard drives connected to the system are listed with their details. From this section, choose a hard drive you want to scan for lost partitions and click Search. A scan for lost or deleted partitions will be performed in the selected disk or drive.
  7. Any ‘lost partition’ detected, will be listed in the Partition Found section.
  8. From the list of partitions found, select any desired partition and click Scan to continue with the recovery process.
  
  Note: If you can’t find your desired partition in the Partition Found section, you can choose Deep Scan option to perform a comprehensive scan of the selected drive for deleted or lost partition.
  
  If you found all your old data in the preview section and wish to recover it back, then please purchase the software from the official website.
  
  Regards
  Team Stellar Data Recovery
  
  Reply