"Quick Fix: External Hard Drive Access Denied Error"

The external hard drive becomes inaccessible, access denied, help!

"I encountered an error message when attempting to open my external hard drive on a Windows 10 PC, stating, 'Location is not available. G:\ (my external hard drive) is not accessible. Access is denied.' Have you ever experienced this issue? I also tried connecting the drive to my older Windows 7 PC, but I still couldn't gain access to it. If you have any solutions to help me open the drive and recover the saved data, please assist! Thank you."

There can be quite a few reasons that may cause issues with your external hard drive, and it's quite common to encounter an "Access Denied" error for your hard drive/USB/file folder. If you're facing this issue with your external hard drive, relax and follow the quick fixes to resolve the "drive is not accessible" or "access denied" error in Windows 10/8/7 right now.

"Quick solution for 'Access Denied' error on external hard drive"

Note: If your external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, or other storage devices become inaccessible, including situations where the C drive access is denied, avoid hastily formatting them to prevent unintentional data loss. Instead, try the following quick solutions to fix and repair them:

1. Use the Error Checking tool to fix the 'Access Denied' error on the external hard drive

Connect the inaccessible external hard drive to a Windows 10/8/7 PC; Open This PC/My Computer > Right-click on the inaccessible external hard drive > Choose Properties; Click Tools > Click Check/Check Now.

Translation:

Wait for the error checking process to finish, and then you should be able to view the saved data on your external hard drive.

2. Obtain permission to access the external hard drive with the 'Access Denied' error

Connect your inaccessible external hard drive to a Windows 10/8 or 7 PC, and then follow these guidelines to gain access to your drive now:

For Windows 10/8 users: 1. Open File Explorer > Right-click on the inaccessible external hard drive > Choose Properties. 2. Navigate to the Security tab > Click on Edit.

3. Click your username under Group or user names.

4. Check all the boxes under the "Allow" column > OK > Apply.

For Windows 7 users: 1. Right-click on the inaccessible hard drive > Select Properties. 2. Navigate to the Security tab > Click Advanced > Then click Edit on the Owner tab. 3. Under Group or user names, select your user name to take ownership of the desired account. By doing this, you should be able to view the permissions that allow you to access the inaccessible external hard drive.

Resolve inaccessible external hard drive with 'Access Denied' error

If the above quick solutions didn't work, don't worry; simply follow these two steps to regain access to your inaccessible external hard drive:

#1. Repair bad sectors on the inaccessible external hard drive Translation: #1. Fix bad sectors on the inaccessible external hard drive

An external hard drive failing to open in the Windows system might be due to bad sectors. To repair these bad sectors and resolve the issue, you can use a powerful partition manager software in just three simple steps.
The professional partition manager software offers a Check Partition feature that easily helps fix this problem. Download it for free and follow the steps to repair bad sectors on your external hard drive now:  

Step 1. Launch tools Partition Master on your PC. Then, locate the hard drive and right-click the partition that you want to check. Choose "Advanced" > "Check File System".

Step 2. In the Check File System window, select the "Try to fix errors if found" option and click "Start".

Step 3. The software will start to check your partition file system on the disk. When it's done, click "Finish".

#2. Change drive letter and format to fix the inaccessible external hard drive

Change the inaccessible external hard drive letter: 1. Right-click on 'This PC' or 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'; 2. Navigate to 'Disk Management' and locate your external hard drive, then right-click on it and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Path...'; 3. Assign a new drive letter that is not currently in use on your PC and mark the partition as 'Active' > Click 'OK'. Afterwards, restart your PC and your external hard drive should appear and function normally.

If it still can't be accessed, you can then proceed to directly format the drive. To avoid data loss, it's recommended to use reliable data recovery software first to retrieve data from the inaccessible drive.

Format and reset inaccessible external hard drives: 1. Connect the inaccessible external hard drive to your PC and open Disk Management; 2. Locate and right-click on the inaccessible drive > Select Format volume... 3. Rename the drive and format it to NTFS. Save all changes and restart your PC. Now, you should be able to use the external hard drive normally.

Additional Tip: Recover Lost Data from Inaccessible External Hard Drive

If you have crucial data saved on an inaccessible external hard drive, or you accidentally formatted the drive without backing up your data, don't panic. There's still a possibility to retrieve your lost data. By using professional hard drive data recovery software like tools Data Recovery Wizard, you can effectively recover your files in just 3 simple steps.