Unable to Write/Delete data on External USB disk in Windows 7.
Hii,I recently bought a new AMD x4 945, MSI 785 chipset system and installed Windows 7 ultimate edition on it. Now when i connect my old External USB WD hdd to it it is successfuly able to connect, it is able to read copy the data but i am not able to delte/write any data to it. I connet the same HDD to my old Windows XP sp2 system and it works fine there. Seems like the HDD got only read only access in windows 7. How will be able to write/delete data from it ?
February 11th, 2010 9:42am

Hi there, First of all, have you install the following hotfix for USB issue? Most USB issue can be fixed by it.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972 if the issue persists after installing the hotfix, pls let me know what the exact error you may encountered when you try to delete/write to the old external USB HDD. Meanwhile, do you have the same issue when you use other USB flash disk or external HDD? Additional, you can also backup your files on the HDD and format it under Windows 7 as a quick fix, do you still have the same issue now?
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February 11th, 2010 12:12pm

Thank you for your reply. I have not applied the hotfix yet. I do not get any error while delete/write data to the USB disk. The options to create new folder or delete any file/folder are not available for the data in my External USB HDD. Seems like it system is opening it in Read only mode. I am not sure if i should apply this hotfix as i am not facing any of the issues mentioned in the kb. Currently i switched over to my old system as i needed to do some work with that data on HDD. In next 2 days i will switch back again to my windows 7 system and check if it has "NVIDIA USB EHCI" controller and will apply the hotfix and update you guys on the staus. Formatting the USB HDD with Windows 7 will be pain as it's a 1 TB HDD and i do not have any other space available to backup that data.
February 12th, 2010 10:04am

Hi, Regarding the hotfix, I think you can install it directly. The hotfix will replace/update some USB related system files which would be helpful for USB related issues. Actually, I have had this type of issue before and format is a quick fix to me (please remember to formant it under Windows 7). Since you do not have other free space, you can consider copy those data to another PC (of your friends or the PC in your office) Meanwhile, what would happen when you try to save file to this USB HDD? If you receive error message stating "The disk is write-protected. Remove the write-protection or use another disk”, please remove write protection from your USB flash drive using the below method:====================1. Open start menu, in the search bar type REGEDIT and press enter. This will open the registry editor.2. Navigate to the following path:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies Note: If the registry key StorageDevicePolicies does not exist, you will need to create it manually. 3. Highlight StorageDevicePolicies, and then create a New DWORD (32-bit) Value named as WriteProtect.4. Double click the key WriteProtect in the right window and set the value to 0 in the Value Data Box and press OK button5. Restart your computer and try copying files into your USB drives. If the issue persists, you may have to run the following command as a fix:====================1. Start > search bar -> CMD and press enter2. type< diskpart3. type< list disk4. type< select disk # (# is the number of the USB HDD you’ve pluged in)5. type< attributes disk clear readonlyDo you still have the same issue after reboot? Please post your update info if you have make any progress
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February 12th, 2010 11:26am

Addtionally, I would like to suggest you checking the permissions of the disk. If it is read-only, try to take ownership of the disk and edit the permissions to have write/delete privilege. How to take ownership of a file or folderEdit the permissions:=============1) Right click the drive.2) Hightlight Security tab.3) Select the current user.4) Click Edit and check the Allow box of Full control.5) Click Apply and OK. Best RegardsDale
February 17th, 2010 5:28am

Can't edit the security and take ownership as the security tab is not showing on the properties page.
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February 28th, 2010 2:20pm

I installed hotfix as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972 , Performed the "StorageDevicePolicies" registry key but problem still exists. Format and Diskpart still needs to be tried. Soon i will arrange for the backup and perform diskpart as well. I do not think disk part will help much as when i saw external hdd status in diskpart it does not shows it as read only.
March 1st, 2010 10:24am

Surprizingly I was able to write/delete data 2 days back. It worked fine for hours. I deleted some of the data fine. I shut down the pc and again I am not able to write/delete any data from it. I still can't figure out how it worked and why it is not working now.
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March 7th, 2010 2:32pm

I had Same issue, tried this and is worked http://www.t3chworks.com/index.php?p=2_1
April 1st, 2010 9:18pm

Still No go with it..DiskPart shows it "Read Only: No" both at disk and volume level. As suggested in the article i still tried "ClearReadonly" but no luck.. Any more suggestions..?
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June 17th, 2010 4:35pm

I tried many methods on Internet: regedit, diskpart, etc. not work on my HP8GB on Lenovo T410. Co can't get rid of Win7 either. This is for sure a bug.
February 4th, 2011 2:29pm

Thanks for the info. Of all of the processes I tried, this was the only thing that worked and without deleting any of my files. Very simple too.LMCfashions@comcast.net
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July 9th, 2011 8:23pm

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