USB Flash Drive - "F:/, Access Denied"

12 replies
Hi guys

Wondering if anyone here can help me with this.

I went to my printers today and gave him my USB Flash Drive so he could copy an inage from it for some printing work.

I then get home and when plugging in the USB Flash Drive it is recognised by the Windows XP system but then comes up "F:/, Access Denied"

This is a little worrying as I have a recently finished Powerpoint Presentation on it for my upcoming talk in London!

Any (preferably not too techy) advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Roy
#drive #f or access denied #f or access denied #flash #usb
  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Moser
    I've seen this happen on my winxp machine but not exactly the same as your issue. When ever I try to open my USB drive folder by clicking it or right clicking and choose open I get Access Denied. So now I have to right click it and select Explore. That's the only way I can open it unless I unplug it and plug it back in.

    See if it works for you.

    However mine does open after windows recognizes it. So yours might actually be corrupt or something.
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Hopefully your PP presentation is still on your computer, so if the worst comes to the worse you can get a new flash drive.

      I guess this isn't a good time for a homily on backups!

      I wonder if the problem was caused by the printer removing the flash drive while it was still being accessed? Or not clicking on the safely remove icon, if it was available.

      I would try plugging it into someone else's computer, if you can, to see if that will read it.

      Also trying what Aaron suggested. See if it appears on the list of drives in My Computer and see if you can open it from there.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Lenaghan
        Does your printer use a Mac? I'm a Mac guy and I've had some issues with Windows machines not being able to read USB sticks I've formatted on the Mac, even if I format them as FAT drives (the Windows format).

        When you plug a USB stick into the Mac, even if it's already formatted, the Mac adds some hidden files that it uses to index the drive. These apparently can cause problems with some Windows machines, such as the ones at my local photo print shop.

        If all else fails, I'd take the stick back to the printer and see if they can read it for you. It must have worked on their machine, so if they made some change to it inadvertently, it should still open for them. If that doesn't work, it could be corrupted somehow, whether from unplugging it when it was still be read/written to or just picking a bad time to pack it in.

        John
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  • Profile picture of the author Roy Carter
    Hi guys

    Aaron - When I right click it and select Explore I still get the denied access so can't get in.

    Rosetrees - I tried plugging it into someone else's computer and still got the denied access.

    John - I guess it could be that, but not sure if he's using a Mac. So the Mac has likely added some hidden files and that now means that my windows pc can't open it? Is there anyway of resolving the issue?

    Richard - Nope. No slider so it's not locked.

    Appreciate your input guys.

    Anyone else have any suggestions please.

    Thanks.

    Roy
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    • Profile picture of the author wolvie75
      i had the same problem a couple of months ago and spent days trying to fix it. I'm sorry man, but it's gone. I had to run some undelete software to try and recover as many files as possible (lost about 20%) and do a reformat of the damn thing...
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    • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
      Originally Posted by Roy Carter View Post

      Anyone else have any suggestions please.
      Get a new one and put your PP presentation on that.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Lenaghan
      Originally Posted by Roy Carter View Post

      I guess it could be that, but not sure if he's using a Mac. So the Mac has likely added some hidden files and that now means that my windows pc can't open it? Is there anyway of resolving the issue?
      I don't know if that's the reason for sure, but it has happened to me. If I format the USB stick with the Windows file system on my Mac, it works fine on my wife's Vista computer. But when I take it into my local photo printing shop, they can't read it at all on their XP machines.

      Bring it back home, works fine on both the Mac and Vista still. I've never really dug into it to see if it can be solved, since I'm only using it to transport files that are stored in other places. The print shop tells me that they have this problem with Mac formatted USB sticks though so it seems to be more widespread than just my particular setup.

      The only thing I'd suggest is to take it back to the printer and see if they can read it. If it worked when they used it the first time, and their machine did something to it in the process, it *should* work again.

      I'm assuming you don't have this PP file stored someplace else, so if the USB stick has somehow been corrupted so nothing can read it, the only other thing I can suggest is what wolvie75 said and try running an undelete or file recovery utility on it and see what you can recover. You may or may not get anything - it'll depend on what happened - but if you don't want to have to recreate the whole thing it might be worth the effort.

      John
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  • Stick your flash drive in a different computer (work/friends/whatever), get the files off of it there, and then copy it to a different drive. Altneratively, reinstall the drivers (search on the internet for the make of the manufacturer).

    Sounds like your drivers may have been a bit corrupt, or you are using the USB port for printing/other uses as well which 'confuses' windows.
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    • Profile picture of the author CurtisSWN
      Email it, upload it to a file storage. Copy it over into another format.
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      • Profile picture of the author Roy Carter
        Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

        The upshot is that I took it back to the printers and got him to open and copy everything to disc.

        I then binned the stick and put it down to experience

        Thanks again.

        Roy
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  • Profile picture of the author Tanika50
    Hi Roy,
    I somtimes have a similar problem. I use XP and this "Access Denied" error happens when I click on the right pane in Windows Explorer...partoiculary if my view type is set to "thumbnails"
    However if I click on my USB drive (in My case KingstonG ) in the left pane...it all works!!
    So its been an issue, but one I have found a solution to..
    Cheers
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