What to do with the "Access denied to disk" error

Any digital storage medium, whether it is a regular flash drive or hard drive, is not protected from failures in its work. It may happen that when you try to open folders or files, the “Access to the disk is denied” error appears. An inexperienced user in such cases immediately despairs to restore the device’s performance and runs for help to the wizard or simply buys a new drive. But to do this is not necessary. This article will tell you how to fix the "Access to the drive is denied" error in Windows 7. But it’s worthwhile to immediately clarify that the instruction that will be provided below is suitable not only for the "seven", it is also feasible in other versions of the operating system Microsoft systems.

How to solve the "Access denied to disk" problem

Before you talk about ways to fix the error, you need to understand the reasons why it can happen. They are as follows:

• insufficient user rights;
• software malfunctions;
• the drive is infected with a virus;
• The drive is damaged.

If the first three reasons can be dealt with through some manipulations in the operating system, then if the drive itself fails, nothing can be done. In some cases, of course, you can give the device in for repair and hope for the possibility of repair.

Method 1: using standard OS tools

If an error occurs when you try to open some section of the hard drive, "Access Denied" may appear due to user rights restrictions. Even more than that, most often this is the case. By the way, this happens not only with a solid state drive, but also with a regular flash drive. In this case, the problem can be solved without resorting to using third-party software, but directly using the tools of the OS itself.

First of all, you need to check access to the disk. This task can be performed as follows:

1. Double click on “My Computer”. If there is no such shortcut on the desktop, then open the File Explorer file manager and go to the My Computer section in the left pane.
2. A list of disk partitions and external drives appears. Click RMB as needed.
3. In the menu that appears, select the "Properties" item.
4. A new window will appear where you need to go to the "Security" tab.
5. In the window interface, find the "Change" button. It is located under the "Groups or Users" list.
6. Check all the options and see if there are any restrictions. If they are, then correct them.
7. Click “OK” and close all windows.

This should help in resolving the "Access denied to disk" error. However, if you did not notice any restrictions or simply could not correctly change them, then you can use the second method:

1. Open the registry. Press Win + R and in the appeared window execute the regedit command.
2. In the window that appears, you need to go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder, then to SOFTWARE, then to WINDOWS, CURRENTVERSION and EXPLORER_MOUNTPOINTS2. There will be a folder with the letter of your drive. Go to it.
3. You will find a directory called SHELL. It must be deleted. This is done simply: select the folder and press the Delete key.

After that, it remains only to restart the computer. If the problem was a virus substituting files in this directory, the error will disappear.

Method 2: remove malware

It happens when you try to open an external drive “Access Denied” appears due to a virus hiding in the system. Moreover, this virus can be located both on the drive itself and on the computer’s hard drive, therefore it is recommended to check all sections of the computer using antivirus. What software to use for this is up to you.

Method 3: format and restore data

It happens that access problems arise due to any system failures. In this case, formatting the drive is the best option. However, to prevent data from being lost, it is better to restore it before doing so. The article will use the R-Studio program for such purposes.

1. Launch the app.
2. Select the drive from which you would like to recover information.
3. Files suitable for recovery appear on the right. Select the required one and click on it with RMB.
4. From the list of options that appears, select "Restore".
5. In a new window, pave the path to the folder into which the files will be transferred.
6. Click Yes.

After recovering all the important data, you need to format the USB flash drive. This is done through the "Explorer".

1. Open My Computer.
2. Click RMB on the section.
3. In the menu, select the "Format" option.
4. In the window that appears, click "Start."

It remains only to wait until the end of the formatting process, after which the partition or drive should work properly.

Conclusion

So we figured out how to fix the "Access to the disk is denied" error. As you can see, there are not so many reasons for its occurrence, respectively, and there are only three ways to eliminate it. It is recommended that you try to solve one at a time, following the methods in the article.