I don't know entirely what I'm doing, so please bear with me. I'm using Windows 7-64 bit, a WE 1TB external hard drive and a Lacie 80GB external hard drive. I was trying to prevent other user accounts from accessing my external hard drives. I accidentally denied all access for the Everyone group and compounded the problem by deleting the group in the Properties>Security menu. It locked me out of the external hard drives. I then read threads advising that I should take ownership of the drive. I attempted to do that, and got the dialogue window telling me that the security settings were being updated. Unfortunately, I got two error messages telling me access was denied for the system volume. Now, my external harddrives show up as "Local Disks," I can only access files if I individually change the security settings for each file. Also, despite the drive and all of the files showing me as the "owner," the security settings I set for the drive don't match the individual files within. System restore didn't help. I just want to go back to the way things were, where the drive is recognized with autoplay options, etc. and otherwise operates normally when I plug it in. Please help.

If you took ownership back of the drive did you assing the permissions back to the way they were for the drive? You said that you have removed the "everyone" group from the drive's permissions. Try putting it back. Also you should try a second external harddrive to see its behaviour and to see what kind of permissions get assigned to it. Then try to replicate those back on the one with problems. Also you could try to see how the drive behaves when you log on to the computer as a different user. If that changes things then the setting must be tied in with your user profile, that might need to be changed. Maybe Only on win7 professional versions -> In addition try running secpol.msc, or gpedit.msc and from the pop up windows navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative templates -> System -> Removable Storage access, all the entries there are not configured by default. If some of them are changed then that is where the problem might reside. [Links to third-party paid support not permitted in this forum]

If you took ownership back of the drive did you assing the permissions back to the way they were for the drive? You said that you have removed the "everyone" group from the drive's permissions. Try putting it back. Also you should try a second external harddrive to see its behaviour and to see what kind of permissions get assigned to it. Then try to replicate those back on the one with problems. Also you could try to see how the drive behaves when you log on to the computer as a different user. If that changes things then the setting must be tied in with your user profile, that might need to be changed. Maybe Only on win7 professional versions -> In addition try running secpol.msc, or gpedit.msc and from the pop up windows navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative templates -> System -> Removable Storage access, all the entries there are not configured by default. If some of them are changed then that is where the problem might reside.The Computer Manual Please do not forget to select the best answer if it helps you! The Ultimate computer newbie guide since the invention of the noob-tube

Thanks for the reply. I did try to put the group back, and, although it says that "everyone" has full control in the Properties>Security menu for the drive, the group doesn't appear when I go to the settings for the individual files and folders for the drive (they all have a padlock icon next their names). I have the Win7 Home, so should I not try you suggestion?

I don't think windows home edition has gpedit.msc try it to see if you have it. But also try to see how the drive is behaving if you are working from another user account. basically create a new administrative user and then from that account see how is your drive behaving. The Computer Manual Please do not forget to select the best answer if it helps you! The Ultimate computer newbie guide since the invention of the noob-tube

‘Disk is write protected’ error in external Hard Drive issue. Hope this would be helpful for someone who is facing this weird issue: 1. Type Regedit in Windows 7's Search box, then right-click on the Regedit icon and select Run as administrator 2. Save your registry settings by clicking file > Export > save. This is the bacup taken in case something messes up. 3. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE by clicking on the + sign next to it. 4. Open SYSTEM by clicking the plus sign next to it. 5. Open CurrentControlSet. 6. Open Control. 7. Open StorageDevicePolicies 8. Right click on WriteProtect and click modify. 9. If the value data is 1 change it 0 and click ok. 10. Repeat steps 7 to 10 for ControlSet001 and ControlSet002 . 11. Close Registry editor and its done. You might have to reboot.Carey Frisch

Hi, StorageDevicePolicies is not listed in regedit. Also, new admin account acts identically. It's getting to the point where I may have to just change permissions one by one. If I can do that, dump the files back on the internal hard drive, and format the external drive, will that set it back to how it used to be? Other suggestions?

Hi, While you add the everyone group back to the security tab, please click Advanced, highlight Permissions, click Change Permissions, and select the box "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object". Now see if you can access the files within the drive. Best Regards DalePlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.