Help...PC cannot access external USB drives!


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Belleforte

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Jan 29, 2003
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Hi folks,

Since yesterday, my PC is not able to access any external USB harddisks or thumb-drives. When I plug in the devices, I can see the drive letter and names. However, I always get the message 'F:\not accessible. Access is denied.' This happened to different thumb-drive and harddisks. The same external drive can be access on other PCs. Other USB devices like mouse and keyboard work fine on the USB port. Appreciate if someone can help. I am on Window XP.

Thanks!
 

Are you on an office PC?
 

check your PC BIOS and see if you have disabled USB ports when the PC is using the docking station.
 

Yes. I did not encounter this problem until now. I cannot access any external USB drives since yesterday.

It could be that you are on a docking station, or a new security policy pushed down by administrators to disable external drives.
 

I'm having this kind of problem too. Any USB storage device is not accessible in any of the USB ports though they're working fine in other PCs/Macs either in office or at home.

Tried updating the USB controller driver but still the same.

Anyway, whenever I need to access external storage in office, I just work on an available workstation to copy to/from one of my shared folder.
 

Last edited:
Since yesterday, my PC is not able to access any external USB harddisks or thumb-drives. When I plug in the devices, I can see the drive letter and names. However, I always get the message 'F:\not accessible. Access is denied.' This happened to different thumb-drive and harddisks.

Have a look at the anti-virus/anti-malware software. Your USB drives may be infected from unprotected & promiscuous contacts with other computers ...
 

I've encountered this before - the reason is that you probably have your permission and ownership settings screwed up.

To fix this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

It is not a virus issue, nor is it a USB port issue.

Hi folks,

Since yesterday, my PC is not able to access any external USB harddisks or thumb-drives. When I plug in the devices, I can see the drive letter and names. However, I always get the message 'F:\not accessible. Access is denied.' This happened to different thumb-drive and harddisks. The same external drive can be access on other PCs. Other USB devices like mouse and keyboard work fine on the USB port. Appreciate if someone can help. I am on Window XP.

Thanks!
 

Hi...thanks for all your help. I believe what Vince123123 said is correct. It's probably a configuration problem. It happened to me once but I am only denied access to some folders. I dunno how I got locked out of all external USB storage this time...very strange. I was using some external harddisks and thumb-drives on the same PC all the time.

Will try the instructions given in the link.

Wish me luck!....
 

Hehe, just take ownership of the root drive and your problems will be solved.
 

In the current economic environment, there is one more possibility - you have been locked out of all removable drives intentionally because you have been retrenched and HR has not get around telling you about it...

Just kidding...
 

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