Windows 7 - Access Denied - External HDD

I have had a new problem develop on Friday. Whenever I try to access my external hard drive through my user account (which is an admin account) I get a message telling me that "access is denied". The drive has worked no problems on the PC since March so seems strange that it chooses now to do this.

I've tried changing the permissions but no luck.

I've tried the takeown method using the command prompt, but when I do this I also get an error message stating access denied.

I also have a separate account at the log in screen called "administrator" - if I log in as this account then I can access the drive ..... very strange.

Can anyone help? I'm a professional photographer and my last weeks worth of work is stuck on it and I can't get working on it at all........

Hello wrdmrn, welcome to the forum

In your case it would probably be best to save all your files to another location and format the drive before starting again.

I just went to do that now the drive is showing as RAW with zero bytes and telling me that it must be formatted.

Oh the joys, data recovery anyone??

The account labeled "Administrator" looks like you have the hidden administrator account enabled.
Now it looks like the file system has been corrupted.

This is what I would try (see free programs section for source):
1) Download Recuva and attempt to extract your files. Try the quick (non deepscan first) then the deep scan which takes much longer.

Once you have rescued key ($) data you can try to recover the partition
2) Download Partition Wizard, select a/the partition on the ext HDD and do a "check file system". Select attempt to fix errors.
If no or limited success try running "Partition Recovery Wizard".

I checked the drive in the laptop too and it's just the same, asking for a format.

I ran a recovery program on my drive (I forget it's name) and it found some data on the external, just not all of it (nothing from recently anyways) which is concerning me a lot.

I want to get what i need off of it and then I'm going to bin the drive.

A bit odd don't you think?
Is this your boot drive meaning you can't boot.

Its an external drive mate

You should try Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download as recomended by mjf it is one of the best

Obviously I'm fully aware that the initial drive in question was an external mate.
How silly of me, I took his English expression literally. I should have interpreted drive in to mean drive with.