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Access Denied when accessing USB drives in Windows Vista

Posted by Kim Nguyen on December 8, 2007

Today I tried to access my USB Hard drive in Windows and I got this message:

image 

Since I am the local administrator to the system and I never set up permissions to the drive I thought it a little weird i got this message.  After doing some research on the Internet i found this thread at PlanetAMD64.com  :

http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php?t27089.html

So it turns out that it really is as straightforward as a permissions issue.

To Correct:

Double Click My Computer

Right Click on your USB drive and Select Properties

Select the Properties Tab the following screen should appear:

image

Click Continue

Windows UAC will launch click Continue to that also

The Following screen will display:

image

Click the Add button and this screen will display

image

Type in your user name into the “Enter the object names to select” text box and click check names then click OK

This will return you to the Permissions screen.  Check the applicable permissions to give yourself.  In my case I used full control

image

Click Apply and Windows will begin applying the security settings

image

And That’s it.

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10 Responses to “Access Denied when accessing USB drives in Windows Vista”

  1. Manpreet said

    Hi Kim Nguyen!

    I had the same problem with my protable USB Hard Drive from many weeks but after i read your article and implemented in the same way, it WORKS…

    Thanks DUDE…

    With Regards.

  2. Walker said

    Hi, I’m trying to do this but when I get to the step that allows me full control, I can’t click in the ‘full control’ box, do you know why?

  3. Brian said

    I had the same problem with my HD drive and use this plan of action and POW!!! it works!!!
    A million thanks, this was driving me CRAZY!!!

    Thanks again
    Brian

  4. Niki said

    After reading this, I was finally able to access my USB!
    Thank you so much!
    It was also driving me crazy!

  5. JP said

    Thank you dude! I was very upset with Windows 7 and thinking about returning to XP just because of that. As usual, googling was the solution.

  6. Vivekular said

    Is it possible to do this at a library. i keep trying to plug in my usb to a library port ( catalog pcs) and it says f:/ is not accessible. Access denied. So if i follow the above steps will it allow me to do so

  7. Andrew said

    Any ideas how to sort this problem out with XP. Tried altering my Acer elock management, but this doesn’t seem to have any effect. I haven’t been able to use my floppy, DVD or usb drives for a year now and it’s starting to get annoying!

  8. babewithbrain said

    Hi,

    I have a PC running XP Pro SP3.

    Whenever I try to access media in my DVD-RW drive and USB drive I get the following:

    ‘F: \ is not accessible. Access is denied’ (my DVD-RW drive)
    ‘H: \ is not accessible. Access is denied’ (my USB drive)
    I have a problem with my PC, whereby I cannot access my USB or CD or DVD. The USB drive and DVD works fine on other PC’s but cannot seem to work on one of my PC’s. I get the following message, “G:\is not accessible Access Denied”.
    When plugging a removable storage device (iPod, flash stick, anything) into one of the USB ports & DVD in DVD drive, Windows recognizes there is a removable storage device, identifies it. The computer detects the USB drive and CD but data on pen drive or CD is not visible
    When I now look at the properties, it says the drive is 0 bytes used space and 0 bytes free space. I took it to a friend’s place and he could see all files etc.
    Also I tried format it said: “You do not have sufficient rights to perform this operation”
    I am the local administrator to the system and I never set up permissions to the drive.
    When I try to scan H:\ or F:\ drive with ESET NOD32 version 4 it showed: “H:\ or F:\ – error opening”.
    Spent long hours trawling the net without a result.
    I’m sure anyone has more of a clue than me on this one!
    Plz help me guys….

    Appreciate any help,
    Thanks

  9. nanuk said

    thx a million i was thinking about returning to xp

  10. Gary Grudzinskas said

    Great job. Real simple and got me into my USB device. Thanks.

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