Permissions go funny on External HDD

Luckystar · 19 Apr 2010

Hey peeps,

Got a funny issue with my External HDD.

Each time i plug my Ext HDD in to my PC whilst I'm using it (As in, I'm in windows) my permssions seem to reset themselves, evn though they are not.

I can copy from and read, but i cannot write or create on the drive. In my permssions, i have myself setup with control, I have even set, under advanced, it so I am the owner of the device.

It's fine after i reboot, or if i plug in the drive before switching on the PC.

Bear in mind i have gone through numerous installs over the past 6 months (For other reasons), and I wonder if it may be from that.

Is it getting to the point where i am going to need to re-download everything on my ext HDD so they have no permssions set at all or is there a way of removing the permssions from each program, dosument, media.

Thanks in advance
Toby

not so gray matter · 19 Apr 2010

If you move a file from your hard drive to your PC does it switch the permissions back?

If so, just back up all of the info, reformat the drive and you should be ok. Granted there will likely be a real solution, but this should fix the problems.

This also might work:

Enable the real Administrator account:
Start > Search "cmd" > Right Click & Run as Administrator
Run Command: net user administrator /active:yes
Logon w/ Credentials Administrator/nopassword
Take ownership of the drive and reset the permissions through the advanced menu.

xarden · 19 Apr 2010

Any particular reason it's formatted in ntfs?
Had this same problem a couple months or so ago with mine, something about putting files on it at home but cant when at work.
I ended up formatting it with exFat, which is apparently the same as Fat but with large file/volume support.

Luckystar · 20 Apr 2010

Right, maybe i got a little confused, the issue is when i plug in the drive, whilst logged in to windows in my area, I can open the drive and copy but when i want to create or write to the drive i get a 'Write Protection is enabled' error message.

So not sure if this is now a permissions issue as such.

I am the owner of the drive as i sorted that after i restarted the PC the first time.

This happens all the time.

Oh, and i have it formatted as NTFS for that reason, big files and apps. a couple weigh in a 5gb a peice. but i could try ExFAT. If it was to help this issue.

Thanks for the input

Luckystar · 20 May 2010

BUMP!!!

I can now confirm this has been sorted. I formatted to ExFAT and now i have no permissions issues thanks to there being none.

Downside is i can't create a system image to create and store on that drive although i do have a full backup and restore created on there so thats not too bad.

Lucky